PGSI to send wrestlers to international meet

JAKARTA (JP): With a new chief at the helm, the Indonesian Wrestling Association (PGSI) announced a new era of training and achievement during which it will frequently send its wrestlers to compete in international competitions.

Antara quoted PGSI executive chairman Endro Soemardjo as saying that Attorney General Andi Muhammad Ghalib, the newly installed chairman of PGSI, also would improve the domestic championships to boost athlete development.

"We are preparing a new concept of training and athlete development which will raise our athletes' achievements not only in southeast Asia but in Asia and the world as well," he said.

"We will double the number of our domestic championships from two to four next year. We will have cadet, junior, senior and national championships," he said.

He said PGSI would send two senior wrestlers, Supriyadi and Chaidir, to the Asian Wrestling Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, from May 24 to May 26.

The association expects the wrestlers to win at least bronze medals, matching their results in the same event held in Pakistan, he said.

Endro also said the association had invited two foreign coaches from South Korea and Japan to help train the national wrestlers.

"We are planning to hold coaching clinics for local trainers to improve their quality. The foreign coaches might become the instructors (at the clinics)," he said.

He said that on the national level, cadet wrestlers from six PGSI provincial chapters would take part in an open-championship starting on Saturday. Ghalib is expected to open the championship in Sukabumi, West Java. (ivy)