New coach to boost wushu team

New coach to boost wushu team

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's quest to win six gold medals in the
wushu competition at the upcoming Southeast Asian Games has
received a major boost with the presence of former Malaysian
coach Phoon Chee Kong.

Phoon had been a national coach for his country's team before
he quit due to an internal rift within the Malaysian wushu body.

The Indonesian Wushu Association (WI) promptly saw the
opportunity to snap up Phoon, who has been training national
athletes for three months.

"But we don't use the term 'poaching'. We just saw merit in
Phoon and brought him over here. We hope that his knowledge of
the Malaysian team will provide worthy input for us to map the
opponent's strength," Kamadi, the wushu training director, said
here on Thursday.

An overall 16 athletes are currently being groomed at
Semarang, Central Java and Medan, North Sumatra.

Semarang is the training ground for athletes who will compete
in the sanshou fighting category. They are Alfred Maweru, Teguh
Prasetowo, Christian John and Arif Haryoso. They are under the
tutelage of former national boxer Sutan Rambing and Moskos
Panjaitan.

Medan is home base for those who will join the taolu martial
arts competition. They comprise six men and six women. The men
are Herman Wijaya, Gogi Nebulana, Seno Prakoso, Matius Joko
Wahyono, Sandri Liong and Suhendri.

Their female compatriots are Dewi Arimbi, Susyana, Fitri
Santoso, Nurdiana, Chandra Y. Santoso and Sherly Budiono.

Phoon is one of the three foreign coaches supervising the
taolu specialists, in addition to their two local colleagues.

KONI has originally set a target for the wushu team to win
four golds.

Indonesia is banking its medal prospects on Alfred Maweru,
Chris John, who is a professional boxer, Susyana and Nurdiana.
The other two outfit members expected to increase the tally are
Dewi Arimbi and Gogi Nebulana.

Kamadi rated Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines as strong
contenders. (01)