No. 20 deadline given for sports bodies plans

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's 13th Asian Games task force has urged all sports organizations to submit their proposals by Nov. 20.

Muhammad Hindarto, a member of the task force who is also the National Sports Council development program deputy, told reporters yesterday that the task force would evaluate all proposals and report the results to the council chairman by the end of this month.

"Our recommendation will be considered by the chairman before he makes the decision on which sports Indonesia will compete in at the quadrennial event," he said after the task force meeting.

The Games in Bangkok next December will feature 36 events. They are archery, athletics, badminton, baseball, basketball, billiard and snooker, 10 pin bowling, boxing, canoeing, cycling, equestrian, fencing, golf, gymnastics, handball, hockey, judo, kabaddi (India's national sport), karate-do, rowing, rugby football, sepak takraw, shooting, soccer, softball, soft tennis, squash, swimming (including diving, synchronized swimming and water polo), table tennis, tae kwon do, tennis, volleyball (including beach volleyball), weight lifting, wrestling, wushu and yachting.

Hindarto said that although the council had announced 16 potential sports -- archery, badminton, beach volleyball, boxing, cycling, fencing, gymnastics, judo, karate, rowing, surfing, swimming, tae kwon do, tennis, track and field and weight lifting -- other sports still had a chance to be represented at the event.

"The council will not close its door to any sports organizations' proposals. As long as they can demonstrate good programs and provide tournaments to act as preparation for the Games, we'll consider them," he said.

The council has planned to stage a 10-month decentralized training program starting next month. Each organization will be responsible for the training and the budget by cooperating with sponsors.

After that all athletes will be groomed in a three-month training here financed by the council.

But Hindarto said the task force had yet to decide what kind of training would be the best for the athletes.

"Based on our experience, we can't start the training next month. We're facing the Christmas and New Year holidays, the Moslem fasting month and the Idul Fitri holiday. We can only start in February," he said.

"However, we expect the sports organizations to initiate their own training before the council starts the program," he added.

Hindarto said the task force would also discuss how to finance the training and taking the contingent to the Asiad.

"We'll submit our budget plan to the minister of youth affairs and sports next month so it can be included in the 1998/1999 State Budget," he said. (yan)