One more vote for silat in Asiad

SEMARANG (JP): Indonesia's traditional martial art and sport needed only one more vote to be staged in the Asian Games after its exhibition session in the Pusan 2002 Asian Games, an official revealed on Wednesday.

"We need 10 votes to secure pencak silat's appearance in the Asiad and we have secured nine votes. Most members of ASEAN have given their votes," chairman of the Indonesian Pencak Silat Association (IPSI) Eddy Nalapraya told reporters here.

"We can get one more vote from Vietnam or another country which has pencak silat fighters," he added.

The Olympic Committee of Asia (OCA) sent observers from China, South Korea and Thailand to the June Surabaya National Games (PON) to assess the inclusion of pencak silat. The result was pencak silat to be exhibited in Pusan.

Eddy also revealed that Indonesia will host the world championship in mid November.

"There are 19 countries which have registered for the world championship," he said. (har)