PON represents a lost chance for young athletes

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The recent National Games (PON) was not only a "lost chance" for juniors to show their potential, but also creates grim prospects for Indonesian athletes, particularly in track and field in the Southeast Asian region, according to a sports expert, working with the Ministry of Education.

"While there is a lack of competition in nearly every sport in Indonesia, PON has been a lost chance for juniors to display their potential," Hans-Peter Thumm told The Jakarta Post in an interview on Friday.

"If PON wants to make a real contribution to sports development, the event should be limited to athletes under 21," the German said.

Thumm has been working in Indonesia as a consultant under a cooperative Germany-Indonesia project since 2002.

Thumm said that the fact that many athletes had already switched allegiances between different provinces spoke volumes about the trend that the quadrennial national sporting showcase had been reduced to a dubious "market" for aging athletes to gain cash bonuses and medals for the highest-bidding province.

The just-concluded PON in Palembang, South Sumatra, featured 30 provinces, with Jakarta reclaiming the status as number one on the medal table after having been toppled by East Java in Surabaya during the 2002 Games.

While inspiring performances were few and far between, the PON became the latest proof that ambition to win as many medals as possible by provinces had become a priority over real programs to establish a strong sporting foundation from the youth level up.

"Provinces and their local governments must be aware that buying experienced athletes shows their inability to nurture their own talent. This blocks the development for sports in general," he said.

Speaking particularly about track and field, Thumm observed that approximately 70 percent of former Southeast Asian (SEA) Games participants under-performed at PON.

And that, he said, raised questions about their training process given by their respective provinces.

"Only three athletes have shown a tendency towards Asian Games standards: Edi Zakaria, Ahmad Sakeh and perhaps Nunung Jayadi," he said.

"Others like Junaedi, Ong Kok Hin, Ponsianus Kahol and Dedeh Erawati could establish a good base for Manila (SEA 2005)," he said.

The last SEA Games was held in Vietnam in December 2003, while the next edition of the biennial sporting spectacle in the region will be hosted by the Philippines in 2005.

Edi, who is the national record holder at 110-meter hurdles, won gold in a time of 14.16 seconds. His time was a tad slower than his record of 14.11, which he ran in Athens last month, but that time pales in comparison to the top Asian and world leaders who run consistently in the low 13s. The Asian record (tied for world record) is 12.91 by Liu Xiang of China.

Ahmad and Nunung won gold in the men's 200 meters and pole vault, respectively.

Ni Putu Desi Margawati, Yurita Ariani, Erni Ulatningsih and Supriati Sutono, who won gold medals in Vietnam, all performed worse than their personal bests at PON.

Thumm said with regard to the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, it was impossible to detect any young new stars on the horizon at PON and therefore, he further questioned the Indonesian Athletics Association (PASI) -- which has no official connection or coordination with the sports directorate at the education ministry -- over its inadequate systems to address such issues.

"PON provided evidence again that with regard to potential within a country of 220 million people, the foundation for successful athletic program is shockingly small. (Much more work and coordination is needed) in order to close the gap on the three leading track and field countries in Southeast Asia: Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia.

Indonesia could only bring home four gold medals from 2003 SEA Games compared to Thailand, which boasted 13 gold, then Vietnam and Malaysia, each with 8.

"If there are no quick and drastic changes in handling athletics (administration, coaching, training and athlete welfare) nobody should be surprised if we (Indonesia) are only beating the likes of Cambodia, Laos, Brunei and East Timor. Thinking otherwise means simply dreaming," he said.