PON remains grim feature of national sports development

PON remains grim feature of national sports development

Moch. N. Kurniawan
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Jakarta regained the overall championship by winning the most
medals at this year's 16th National Games (PON) in Palembang,
South Sumatra. However, the Games ended with one important
question left unanswered: Just how effective are they in
producing athletes who are able to compete internationally?

The organization of the Games also exposed weaknesses in our
human resources, which resulted in the organizers' failure to
provide decent accommodations for some of the athletes in the
early days of the competition and the failure to supply accurate
data and updated match results to the media.

The problem of professionalism peaked with the final of the
soccer competition between Papua and East Java having to be
called off because there were no floodlights available at the
stadium. The two teams were declared co-winners but only a few
days after the closing ceremony.

Despite from these blips, the Games themselves, which were
held outside of Java for the first time in almost three decades,
drew a lot of interest from fans and all of the events were well
attended.

And with the number of new facilities built for the Games, the
local administration can expect more and better quality sports
activities in the future.

After competing for 10 days in 41 sports, Jakarta emerged at
the top of the medal table with 141 of the 625 gold medals on
offer. Jakarta was followed by East Java with 76 golds and 81
silvers, West Java with 76 golds and 79 silvers and Central Java
with 56 golds.

South Sumatra was the only team outside of Java in the top
five in the medal table with 30 golds.

The fact that the quadrennial sporting showcase was dominated
by teams from Java raised concern that athletic development has
not reached every part of the country with equal effectiveness.

However, when looking at the bigger picture of international
competition, the most worrying and discouraging developments of
the Games were the issues of aging athletes and the generally
mediocre performances of athletes compared to their peers both in
Southeast Asia and the whole of Asia. These issues are likely to
dominate sports conversation for years to come.

Veteran athletes accounted for some 40 percent of the 6,500
athletes competing in the Games, a percentage regarded by many
observers as too high.

In gymnastics, one of the sports traditionally offering the
bulk of gold medals, along with athletics and swimming, the
percentage was even higher at 45 percent of the 113 gymnasts
competing.

Sports expert Hans-Peter Thumm, who is here as part of an
Indonesia-Germany sports cooperation program, summed up the trend
as junior athletes being robbed of their opportunity to display
their potential.

"While there is a lack of competition in nearly every sport in
Indonesia, PON has become a lost chance for juniors to display
their potential," he said.

This dependence on veteran athletes was partly fueled by
provinces trying to win as many medals as possible, without
taking into consideration the ultimate interests of the country.

While the veterans might have been able to bring home the
medals for their respective provinces at PON, little can be
expected from them when it comes to international competitions.

Gymnast Jonathan Sianturi, who served as player-coach at the
2003 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, led the veteran gymnasts to a
20 gold rampage at the PON.

But given his age of 33 he is unlikely to dominate the SEA
Games as he once did between 1987 and 1997. The 2003 SEA Games
were a pretty good judge of Jonathan's declining powers, as he
was only able to help the Indonesian gymnasts to two golds.

Ismail Sroyer, 39, of Papua won the men's discus at PON to
spark veteran athletes's haul of 20 of the 46 golds on offer in
track and field.

The swimming pool saw former national stars Elsa Manora
Nasution and Richard Sam Bera dominate the National Games. Though
the two fading stars are no longer forces at the SEA Games, they
were able to win two golds each at the PON.

The eagerness of the provinces to put on a good showing at the
Games also resulted in athletes switching allegiance from one
province to another for promises of bonuses or jobs in local
government offices.

Observers said such things occurred because provinces remained
unable to nurture their own sports talents.

The National Sports Council (KONI) is aware of the practice of
jumping from province to province, but so far has done little to
put an end to the practice.

Olympic judoka Krisna Bayu, weightlifter Yudi Suhartono and
swimmers Albert Susanto and Felix Susanto were among those
athletes who changed allegiances for the PON 2004, apparently
driven by the promise of big bonuses.

Krisna, who left the West Java team for South Sumatra,
defended his move, saying it was common for athletes to seek the
financial support that would allow them to concentrate on
practicing and competing.

"Don't expect much from athletes if a province fails to
provide sufficient financial support," he said.

In several cases, the attempt to jump teams ended in
controversy. West Java and North Sulawesi failed to resolve their
conflicting claims over Greysia Polii, which resulted in the
young shuttler being denied entry to the Games.

In the competition itself, the athletes put on performances
that were largely unimpressive. There were just a few instances
of athletes improving national or Games records. Sutrisno's
impressive feat of shattering his own world record in
powerlifting seemed scant consolation.

The fact that no SEA Games or Asian marks were equaled or
improved at the PON should be seen as a warning that Indonesia is
continuing to fall behind other countries in the region.

Indonesia, which was the dominant force from the time it first
competed in the SEA Games in 1977, has finished a disappointing
third at the last three SEA Games.

Thailand and Malaysia finished ahead of Indonesia in 1999 and
2001, while in 2003 host Vietnam and Thailand shoved Indonesia
down to third in the medal table.

With the Philippines hosting the event next year, Indonesia
might want to prepare itself for a further drop in the medal
table. The Philippines sent an early warning by managing to
finish fourth at the 2003 SEA Games ahead of reigning champion
Malaysia.

KONI has introduced an intensified training program called
Indonesia Awakens. The program involves the training of a select
few athletes with the goal of improving Indonesia's medal tally
at the next SEA Games and at the 2006 Asian Games in Qatar.

However, this program could backfire in the long run by
diverting KONI's attention away from more urgent measures that
could better improve long-term sports development in the country.

While some action is needed to tackle the controversial
movement of athletes from province to province, KONI may also
have to take measures to put an age limit on the athletes
competing at PON, in order to make the quadrennial event a true
stepping-stone for young Indonesian athletes hoping to compete
internationally.