Opening day of LG Cup marred by protests, disputes
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Protests over match scoring and claims of participation legitimacy marred the opening day of the LG Cup, a national tae kwon do championship, at the Senayan sports complex here on Thursday.
A total of 367 tae kwon doins are taking part in the planned four-day event, which has eight classes in the men's and women's categories.
With the event also being the qualifier for the upcoming Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Vietnam this December as well as the 2004 National Sports Championship (PON) in Palembang, South Sumatra, rivalries got so heated some continued well after matches.
Top two athletes will be given places in the SEA Games training camp while PON will allow those ranked up to eighth in respective categories.
Thursday's program comprised the men's and women's finweight and middleweight classes. The matches were still underway late into the evening.
The Papua and East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) teams quite upset by the scoring and ended up protesting to the committee after they felt they had been victimized.
Saver Adam of NTT met Antonio of Bengkulu in the opening round of the men's finweight match with the latter winning 3-1.
However, the NTT team believed that their athlete deserved another two points. Their argument, being supported by the jury, was accepted, but only one point was reinstated.
Papua claimed Meilda Egana should have won over national star Ika Dian Fitria of East Java in the women's finweight. But unlike NTT, Papua did not follow the procedures properly so their protest was tossed out and Meilda was handed the loss.
The procedure that the missed was a "protest deposit" amounting to Rp 500,000 (US$58.8) as stipulated in the rules.
"My athlete snapped her opponent with a kick on the head twice. That should be four points for us," Papua team's coach Daniel Lucas said.
"I will offer two options, either a rematch or handing us the victory. Otherwise, we will gather on the floor and sit there as a form of protest," he added.
Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. (ret) Suharto, the chairman of the Indonesian Tae kwon do Association (TI), called for the Papua officials to comply with the tournament's rules.
Earlier, Suharto had to intervene to in an attempt to facilitate reconciliation between the two teams from North Sumatra, which resulted from an internal conflict within the provincial chapter's organizational board.
It was decided that Young Berlan group from N. Sumatra, who brought 11 athletes, had to give way for the 16 athletes led by Bangkit Sitepu group to continue their participation in the tournament. But, Berlan's athletes will still be given the chance of joining either SEA Games or PON during the planned local tournament as recommended by Suharto.