PON begins in frenzied ceremony
JAKARTA (JP): The 14th National Games (PON) was ignited in a hectic opening ceremony at the packed Senayan stadium yesterday.
But Donald Pandiangan was likely the only one to sweat in the grand celebration, which was held on a cool day in the usually hot, populous metropolitan city.
Donald had to overcome a case of nerves before lighting the cauldron with his flaming arrow, to the delight of some 90,000 spectators and 13,000 participating athletes who filled the 100,000-seat stadium.
The flame lighting attraction came shortly after President Soeharto declared the Games open.
"I was nervous. I felt like I had returned to competition," the 51-year-old archer said afterward.
The four-time Southeast Asian Games gold medalist coached the national women's trio to an historic silver medal that ended Indonesia's Olympic medal drought in Seoul eight years ago,
Ironically, the Seoul story repeated itself for Donald when at least three doves who happened to perch on the cauldron were roasted by the flame. The birds were among thousands of pigeons released during the ceremony.
The International Olympic Committee chiefs endorsed last year the idea of ending the traditional release of doves at the Atlanta Olympics opening ceremony, acquiescing to mounting protests from environmentalists and animal lovers that followed the roasting of doves in Seoul.
Aside from the unexpected incident, Donald, dubbed Indonesia's Robin Hood, completed his task almost flawlessly.
He lit his arrow with the torch carried by former track stars Purnomo and Emma Tahapary. A string guided the arrow to the cauldron in a carbon copy of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics opening ceremony.
"We have anticipated any failures by installing a remote control inside the cauldron," said Kusnan Ismukanto, the deputy official in charge of the ceremony. The remote control was designed to ignite the flame in case Donald missed his mark.
He added that the device was installed only two hours before the ceremony began. The organizers also filled the cauldron with paraffin in place of fuel, as planned.
Organizers used the help of seven rain masters to keep the clouds at bay. A heavy rain poured on the capital four hours after the opening ceremony concluded.
Attraction
As President Soeharto and Vice President Try Sutrisno stepped on to the podium, 6,000 students formed a configuration of the two leaders' pictures. The configuration was followed by "Selamat Datang", a welcoming greeting.
The arrival of 4,915 sportsmen and women from the country's 27 provinces soon followed, as they made a lap around the track in alphabetical order according to the name of their province, except hosts Jakartans, who marched in the rear.
The PON, which will run until Sept. 20, contests 35 sports with 509 gold, 509 silver and 599 bronze medals on offer.
A cultural performance involving 1,500 students blended the traditional martial art pencak silat with traditional dances and gymnastics in choreography composed by Sentot Sudiarto from the Jakarta Art Institute.
Meanwhile, during the National Sports Day celebration at the Merdeka Palace earlier yesterday morning, Soeharto urged sports officials to become self-sufficient through a beneficial partnership with the business community.
"The development of sports requires an abundance of facilities, which needs a lot of cash. The government has a very limited capability to build such facilities because we are now focusing on other sectors," the President said.
He acknowledged that the partnership between the sports and business communities has worked well so far, but said that a more extensive degree of cooperation will be needed in the coming years.
The 19th Southeast Asian Games here next year will be the first Games to be fully funded by the private sector. A consortium of Indonesian businesspeople led by Soeharto's son Bambang Trihatmodjo has agreed to cover the Games budget of Rp 70 billion (US$31 million).
The President said that the country's economic achievement has given a boost to national sporting activities and suggested that sports officials take advantage of the conducive climate to develop sports nationwide.
"Pushing economic development does not necessarily lead to ignoring development in other sectors. Instead, successful economic development propels success in other fields," the President said.
The President awarded Bintang Jasa Utama medals to the men's badminton doubles team of Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky, who earned Indonesia its sole gold medal in the recent Olympic Games.
Initiated in 1983, National Sports Day is in commemoration of the first National Games (PON) in Surakarta 48 years ago. It has marked the opening of PON since 1985. (amd/yan)
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