Olympic-qualified shuttlers banned from competing in PON

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)