PRSI urged to bypass veterans in SEAG

SEMARANG (JP): Former national swimmer Lukman Niode has urged the Indonesian Swimming Federation (PRSI) not to field old-hand swimmers Richard Sam Bera and twins Albert and Felix Sutanto in the Kuala Lumpur 2001 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.

"Richard has passed his golden age while Albert and Felix fail to maintain stable results. They are not likely to get any medals considering current competition with swimmers from other countries," he said on Thursday.

"Indonesia will not be able to get more than three golds if we rely on those swimmers."

Lukman, also a coach, said that considering the current condition of swimming in the country, it would be better to send young competitors than the veterans.

"PRSI must field young swimmers at the Games and prepare them soon so they can achieve good results in the Vietnam 2003 SEA Games," he said.

"The federation must pay more attention to grooming the youngsters because there is a wide gap of achievement with swimmers such as Richard and the twins."

Lukman predicted that Thailand, the Philippines and host Malaysia would share most of the gold medals.

In Kuala Lumpur, the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) announced that the men's center-fire pistol individual and team events would not be held at the Games from Sept. 8 to Sept. 17.

OCM secretary-general Datuk Sieh Kok Chi said the decision to drop the events was due to a poor response from competitors.

"For the event to take place, there must be at least three competitors. If the number is less than that, there is no point in having it... as provided in the rules," he was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency.

In their place, the men's and women's individual and team double-trap events would be included and this had been agreed to by the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games organizing committee, he said.

With the inclusion of these events, an additional two gold medals will be up for grabs at the Games, with shooting now offering 36 instead of 34 gold. This increases the total gold medals available to 391.

The committee had earlier dropped the all-round group rhythmic gymnastics, also due to poor response from participating teams.

"Three or more events were likely to be dropped once the committee finalized the entries made by participating countries on Aug. 14," Kok Chi said.

Meanwhile, Antara news agency reported that the Indonesian Target Shooting and Hunting Association (Perbakin) chairman of the target shooting division, Sita Razni, said Perbakin welcomed the inclusion of double-trap shooting events as it would increase Indonesia's chance of taking more gold medals. (har/nvn)