PJSI dreams of medal from judo in Busan 2002 Asian Games
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A series of overseas outings have already been planned for national judoka ahead of the 2002 Asian Games, with the sport's governing organization, the PJSI, dreaming of bringing home a medal from the Asian sporting showcase in Busan, South Korea.
The outing program will incorporate trips to Singapore, Malaysia, Iran, Australia and Germany. There are no details as yet about the dates, but the whole program will run from April until August.
Saying that the overseas stop-offs for training were sufficient in number, Aji Kusumantri, the PJSI's deputy secretary-general, is looking ahead to Busan with high hopes of a medal.
"At least a bronze. Gold is impossible," he said here on Tuesday, admitting that the contenders from Japan and South Korea would dominate the event.
The PJSI is grooming five athletes -- Kresna Bayu, Dwi Sihmanto, I Wayan Sutikno, Endang Sri Lestari and Aprilia Marzuki -- as part of its medal hopes. The first four, who are currently enjoying a break after fitness tests at the Jatiluhur reservoir in Purwakarta, West Java, early this month, will start their training in Medan, North Sumatra, on Jan. 26.
Aprilia has participated in a camp in Germany, where she is also attending college.
Although Indonesia has generally dominated the sport in the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, its players have yet to match their North Asian adversaries.
In the last Asiad in Bangkok four years ago, Bayu and Aprilia fell in the second round.
Indriana Kusnadi, a former national player and coach, said that while their skills were almost on a par with their Asian rivals, Indonesia's judoka lacked experience.
"We did not have enough sparring partners. We were not fully tested ahead of the competition," said Indriana, who led an SEA Games team to Kuala Lumpur in 2001, in which the Indonesian judoka lost their domination for the first time.
Bayu and Aprilia will once again be the backbone of the team.
Bayu, 27, has won gold in each of the SEA Games he has participated in since 1993. He also featured in the Olympics twice -- in Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney in 2000.
Ahead of the Busan trip, Aji and Indriana was concerned about a non-technical field which would probably impede Bayu and Aprilia from advancing.
"Now that he is 27 years old, Bayu probably can't get focused one hundred percent on play. He could be thinking about marriage," Aji said.
Aprilia has seemingly yet to adapt to the European style of play. "She is still changing from the Asian style she used to use to the European style," Indriana said.
She expressed confidence that if it was only a matter of going for third place, both Bayu and Aprilia would be able to accomplish the task.