Olympic-qualified shuttlers banned from competing in PON

JAKARTA (JP): The National Sports Council (KONI) finally decided to ban 19 Olympics qualified shuttlers from performing in the 15th National Games (PON) in Surabaya this month.

The decision is considered controversial as at the same time KONI allowed women's tae kwon doin Juana Wangsa Putri, who is recovering from her injury, and her junior Rahadewi Neta to compete in PON and in the Korea Open championships in Seoul at the same time later this month.

KONI had earlier claimed it would focus on badminton because the sport has the greatest chance to contribute gold medals in the Olympic Games. But it also pledged that it would not be partial towards athletes from other sports who had qualified for the quadrennial event from Sept. 15 to Oct. 1.

KONI spokesman, Ahmed Solihin, said Olympics training director Arie Sudewo, who is also KONI's vice chairman, asked PBSI to advise its West Java chapter, where the shuttlers were registered for PON, to find their substitutes.

"Only West Java still has its Olympics players registered for PON. KONI has requested that PBSI and its West Java chapter replace the 19 shuttlers with others. KONI reminded PBSI that we already had an agreement not to allow Olympics-trained shuttlers to compete in PON," he told reporters Friday.

Ahmed said Arie had called on PBSI to prioritize national interests above provincial ones. The decision was reached during a meeting Thursday with officials from 11 sports organizations whose athletes were being groomed for the Olympics.

He also said KONI would make arrangements so the chapter could change the name of its athletes with the PON organizers.

West Java has registered Taufik Hidayat, Marlev Mainaky, Ricky Ahmad Subagja, Rexy Mainaky, Flandy Limpele, Candra Wijaya, Lydia Djaelawijaya and Elysa Nathanael. They are scheduled to compete in the Olympics.

Indonesian badminton has quite a long tradition of netting gold medals in Olympics. It earned two golds in 1992 in Barcelona when badminton was featured for the first time. In 1996, Indonesian men's doubles pair, Ricky and Rexy, retained supremacy.

Ahmed said that Juana and Neta should try their best in the two events, as KONI would select one of them to represent the country in the Olympics. The Indonesian Tae kwon do Association (TI) groomed Neta in the flyweight division to replace Juana should she fail to appear in the Olympics due to her injury.

"We earlier wanted them to compete in the Korea Open, but TI insisted that we allow Juana to compete in PON and the Korea Open. The best between them will be sent to the Olympics," he said.

Ahmed said KONI would allow four women's archers, also being groomed for the Olympics, to compete in the FITA events and the Indonesian Archery Association (Perpani) events in PON from June 19 to June 30.

"They will compete in the FITA events in the first four days, then they have two days off because they do not take part in the traditional event. They will be back to the field in the last two days when they will compete in Perpani events," he said.

Four archers who are attending the training program for the Olympics are Hamdiah, Purnama Pandiangan, Lusia Elisabeth Sumampouw and I Gusti Ayuputu. (ivy)