Quality officials will lead to better events

Quality officials will lead to better events

Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Track-and-field officials from 11 Asian countries are taking a
one-week training course here to enable them to recruit more
officials, judges in their respective countries.

The Technical Official Education and Certification System
(TOECS) level-one course is being held by the Jakarta Regional
Development Center (RDC). It opened on Thursday and will run
until next Tuesday at Madya Athletics Stadium in the Bung Karno
Sports Complex in Central Jakarta.

Participants are from Brunei Darussalam, India, Indonesia,
Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Singapore, Sri Lanka
and Thailand.

Most of the participants were handpicked by the Asian Amateur
Athletics Association (AAAA) based on the individuals' past
achievements and skill in training would-be officials.

"The course participants are certified officials and by taking
this course they will be able to train other officials in their
own countries," Jakarta RDC director Ria Lumintuarso, told
reporters after the opening ceremony.

"The presence of capable technical officials, or judges, at
track-and-field meets is very important to verify the results, as
well as enforcing event regulations."

"Good officiating will also improve the quality of events,
which will lead to the improvement of athletes' achievement," he
added.

Indonesia has 60 certified level-one judges for national level
events and five international judges.

"It is our aim to increase the number of judges in both
national and international levels. But the problem is that many
of our officials don't understand English very well, even though
most of the courses are conducted in English," said Ria.

Also present at the ceremony was honorary secretary of AAAA,
Maurice Nicholas, secretary-general of the Indonesian Amateur
Athletics Association (PASI) Tigor Tanjung, course director
Reginald Brandis of Australia and co-lecturer Waidyatilaka of Sri
Lanka.

Meanwhile, Brandis said good officiating could also contribute
to the development of athletics.

"If the judges fail to officiate properly, records will go
unacknowledged," he said. "This will lead to disappointment among
athletes and sponsors."

Tanjung also said it was important to have more capable judges
to improve standards in athletics.

"An athletics meet needs a lot of judges. There should be at
least one judge for every event. We need more judges if we want
to organize more athletics events here," he said.

"With more competitions available, our athletes will be able
to compete with others and achieve better times and distances."