RI aims to win 150 golds at 19th SEA Games
JAKARTA (JP): The National Sports Council (KONI) predicted yesterday Indonesia could win nearly 150 gold medals at the 19th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games here in October.
"I don't want say exactly how many medals we're going to win," national training director Djoko Pramono said.
At the 1995 Games in Chiang Mai, Thailand, Indonesia finished second with 77 golds, 67 silvers and 77 bronzes. Thailand was first with 157 golds, 98 silvers and 91 bronzes.
The council and 34 sports training directors met on Friday and concluded that training for the Games, which has been underway for six months, had increased athletes' fitness and skills.
"We still have four months to jack up our athletes' skills and performances," he said.
Target
Djoko said council chairman Wismoyo Arismunandar had urged each sport's training director to meet their target.
"Each sport's estimation must be based on training data, so they must be right. If the data is rubbish, the estimation will be rubbish," he said.
Djoko said 16-year-old weightlifter Joko Hanggono could break the record he set in the clean and jerk at the Junior World Championships in South Africa early this month.
"I asked his coach if he could still lift more and his coach said 'yes' based on his increasing training graph," Djoko said.
Djoko is also the Indonesian Weightlifting, Powerlifting and Bodybuilding Association's secretary-general.
Despite expectations of a big medal haul, some sports organizations - including hockey and archery - have decreased their targets.
Djoko said he was disappointed with archery training.
"Firstly, we lack talented archers for international events, secondly our athletes, especially the women, do not train hard enough, and lastly, the athletes have failed to reach their training targets," he said.
Djoko spoke about archer Dahliana's pulling out of the training.
"She's just married and I can understand if she is homesick. But she has to realize that she's a national athlete preparing for a huge event," he said.
The Indonesian Archery Association gave Dahliana's a week off to return home to East Kalimantan but three weeks has passed and she has yet to return.
Track and field, indoor volleyball, softball and tennis all increased their medal targets.
KONI is still expecting tennis star Yayuk Basuki, ranked 31 in the world, to join the national squad for the Games.
"I understand that she wants to lift her world ranking into top 20. Whether she can or not, she's still welcome in the team," he said.
Djoko refused to comment on the Indonesian Tennis Association's decision not to include Yayuk in the Federation Cup team for a tie against Italy on July 12 and July 13 here because she requested the tie be moved from clay to rebound ace courts.
"I believe Sarwono (the association's chairman) has a good reason for his decision. Sometimes, athletes only see a problem from one side. It's an internal problem which should be solved by the association," he said. (yan)