National Games grim state of national sports

National Games grim state of national sports

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Jakarta regained the overall championship by winning the most medals at this year's 16th National Games (PON) in Palembang, South Sumatra. However, the Games ended with one important question left unanswered: Just how effective are they in producing athletes who are able to compete internationally?

The organization of the Games also exposed weaknesses in our human resources, which resulted in the organizers' failure to provide decent accommodations for some of the athletes in the early days of the competition and the failure to supply accurate data and updated match results to the media.

The problem of professionalism peaked with the final of the soccer competition between Papua and East Java having to be called off because there were no floodlights available at the stadium. The two teams were declared co-winners but only a few days after the closing ceremony.

Despite from these blips, the Games themselves, which were held outside of Java for the first time in almost three decades, drew a lot of interest from fans and all of the events were well attended.

And with the number of new facilities built for the Games, the local administration can expect more and better quality sports activities in the future.

After competing for 10 days in 41 sports, Jakarta emerged at the top of the medal table with 141 of the 625 gold medals on offer. Jakarta was followed by East Java with 76 golds and 81 silvers, West Java with 76 golds and 79 silvers and Central Java with 56 golds.

South Sumatra was the only team outside of Java in the top five in the medal table with 30 golds.

The fact that the quadrennial sporting showcase was dominated by teams from Java raised concern that athletic development has not reached every part of the country with equal effectiveness.

However, when looking at the bigger picture of international competition, the most worrying and discouraging developments of the Games were the issues of aging athletes and the generally mediocre performances of athletes compared to their peers both in Southeast Asia and the whole of Asia. These issues are likely to dominate sports conversation for years to come.

Veteran athletes accounted for some 40 percent of the 6,500 athletes competing in the Games, a percentage regarded by many observers as too high.

In gymnastics, one of the sports traditionally offering the bulk of gold medals, along with athletics and swimming, the percentage was even higher at 45 percent of the 113 gymnasts competing.

Sports expert Hans-Peter Thumm, who is here as part of an Indonesia-Germany sports cooperation program, summed up the trend as junior athletes being robbed of their opportunity to display their potential.

"While there is a lack of competition in nearly every sport in Indonesia, PON has become a lost chance for juniors to display their potential," he said.

This dependence on veteran athletes was partly fueled by provinces trying to win as many medals as possible, without taking into consideration the ultimate interests of the country.

While the veterans might have been able to bring home the medals for their respective provinces at PON, little can be expected from them when it comes to international competitions.

Gymnast Jonathan Sianturi, who served as player-coach at the 2003 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, led the veteran gymnasts to a 20 gold rampage at the PON.

But given his age of 33 he is unlikely to dominate the SEA Games as he once did between 1987 and 1997. The 2003 SEA Games were a pretty good judge of Jonathan's declining powers, as he was only able to help the Indonesian gymnasts to two golds.

Ismail Sroyer, 39, of Papua won the men's discus at PON to spark veteran athletes's haul of 20 of the 46 golds on offer in track and field.

The swimming pool saw former national stars Elsa Manora Nasution and Richard Sam Bera dominate the National Games. Though the two fading stars are no longer forces at the SEA Games, they were able to win two golds each at the PON.

The eagerness of the provinces to put on a good showing at the Games also resulted in athletes switching allegiance from one province to another for promises of bonuses or jobs in local government offices.

Observers said such things occurred because provinces remained unable to nurture their own sports talents.

The National Sports Council (KONI) is aware of the practice of jumping from province to province, but so far has done little to put an end to the practice.

Olympic judoka Krisna Bayu, weightlifter Yudi Suhartono and swimmers Albert Susanto and Felix Susanto were among those athletes who changed allegiances for the PON 2004, apparently driven by the promise of big bonuses.

Krisna, who left the West Java team for South Sumatra, defended his move, saying it was common for athletes to seek the financial support that would allow them to concentrate on practicing and competing.

"Don't expect much from athletes if a province fails to provide sufficient financial support," he said.

In several cases, the attempt to jump teams ended in controversy. West Java and North Sulawesi failed to resolve their conflicting claims over Greysia Polii, which resulted in the young shuttler being denied entry to the Games.

In the competition itself, the athletes put on performances that were largely unimpressive. There were just a few instances of athletes improving national or Games records. Sutrisno's impressive feat of shattering his own world record in powerlifting seemed scant consolation.

The fact that no SEA Games or Asian marks were equaled or improved at the PON should be seen as a warning that Indonesia is continuing to fall behind other countries in the region.

Indonesia, which was the dominant force from the time it first competed in the SEA Games in 1977, has finished a disappointing third at the last three SEA Games.

Thailand and Malaysia finished ahead of Indonesia in 1999 and 2001, while in 2003 host Vietnam and Thailand shoved Indonesia down to third in the medal table.

With the Philippines hosting the event next year, Indonesia might want to prepare itself for a further drop in the medal table. The Philippines sent an early warning by managing to finish fourth at the 2003 SEA Games ahead of reigning champion Malaysia.

KONI has introduced an intensified training program called Indonesia Awakens. The program involves the training of a select few athletes with the goal of improving Indonesia's medal tally at the next SEA Games and at the 2006 Asian Games in Qatar.

However, this program could backfire in the long run by diverting KONI's attention away from more urgent measures that could better improve long-term sports development in the country.

While some action is needed to tackle the controversial movement of athletes from province to province, KONI may also have to take measures to put an age limit on the athletes competing at PON, in order to make the quadrennial event a true stepping-stone for young Indonesian athletes hoping to compete internationally.