National men's basketball squad waiting for 3 athletes to show up

JAKARTA (JP): The national men's basketball team is still waiting for three more members to confirm their participation in the tryouts for the SEA Games team.

The Indonesian Basketball Association's spokesman, Lutfi Sukri, said yesterday that Firmansyah, Ronald Median and Theng Kun were supposed to have confirmed by Jan. 5, the deadline for all the players.

The association is trying out 20 male and 20 female basketball players, all of whom must come to Jakarta for training camp should they live outside of the city. Fifteen athletes will be chosen this April for the final training squads, but only 12 will make it onto the team.

The 19th SEA Games are scheduled to be held here from Oct. 11 to Oct. 19.

Russian coach Nikolai Arkhipov held a training session for the men yesterday at the Senayan Basketball Hall and was assisted by Indonesia's Cecep Firmansyah and Abdulrahman Padang.

Lutfi said that no women players have reported for training camp. The women's team will be coached by Wang Chang You of China, who will be assisted by Sim Kim Lay and Ridwan Prayogo of Indonesia.

Fictor Roring said that five athletes -- Wahyu Widayat, Ocky Tamtelahitu, I Nyoman Suwandi, Cokorda Raka and himself -- were suffering on Tuesday from diarrhea, which he blamed on the food at their hotel. But all four, with the exception of Fictor, joined the rest of the athletes in their work-out. Fictor said that he had to rest up for at least one more day.

Meanwhile, an official from the Indonesian Cycling Association, Didi Sedijanto, said that three of its cyclists will not be joining the SEA Games team. Herry Janto Setiawan, Hengky Setiawan and Tubagus Maulana declined to join, citing business and school reasons.

Didi said that Hengky will be replaced by Krisyanto or Teguh Eko Pambudi, Herry by Dadang Haris Purnomo or Deddy Resdian while Maulana will be replaced by Tonton Susanto.

SEA Games training director Djoko Pramono said that despite their absence he was still confident.

"There are no more problems in the association. It has assured me that its athletes will be able to win 10 golds in the biennial event," he said.

Djoko also said that he would look into the rumors that members of the women's sepak takraw team had decided to stop training during the fasting month. A notice was reportedly found on a door near the training area saying that the training schedule had been postponed until after Idul Fitri.

A number of reporters who had arrived yesterday to interview the athletes were also disappointed to find that none of the 18 athletes were practicing.

Julius Tetelepta, the sepak takraw coordinator, said the rumors were false.

"It's not true that they are not practicing during the fasting month," Julius said.

In March, the association, which is hoping for at least two golds in the women's events, is to select 15 women for the main team.

Djoko said that he would also speak to officials from the Indonesian Table Tennis Association to find out why Anton Suseno did not want to join the squad.

Anton recently refused to go to China for an overseas training bout, saying that the Chinese athletes chosen for sparring would not help his performance. (yan)