RI athletes off to Vietnam for SEA Games

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The first batch of the Indonesian team for the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games left for Hanoi, Vietnam, on a chartered Garuda flight on Friday.

The first batch, which consists of 191 athletes and 51 officials, was part of an overall team that comprised 597 athletes and 269 officials, Indonesian Sports Council (KONI) spokesman Sumohadi Marsis said.

Athletes who departed Friday came from water polo, swimming, cycling, indoor volleyball, canoeing, rowing, karate, gymnastics, women's soccer, diving, table tennis and boxing.

Games official Dody Iswadi said the games organizers would escort the delegation to their lodgings near their respective games venues.

Except for the boxing squad, the delegation will be based in Hanoi. The boxing competition will be contested in Ho Chi Minh City, about 1,600 kilometers south of Hanoi.

The table tennis squad only comprised two coaches as its eight athletes will head directly to Hanoi on Sunday from their overseas training workout in North Korea.

The aquatics squad, which will compete in the National Aquatic Sports Complex, was made up of 13 water polo athletes, 23 swimmers and two each in fin-diving and diving. However, the two divers were not among the entourage as they had already left directly from Beijing.

The karate team comprised 29 athletes who will contest their event in the Trinh Hoai Duc Competition Hall, Hanoi.

The 24 volleyballers will play their games in Nam Dinh and Ninh Binh Competition Hall, cycling's 20 athletes (Hanoi-Tay Province-Hoa Binh Province), women's soccer's 20 athletes (Lach Tray Nam Dinh Stadium), canoeing's 17 athletes, rowing's 18 athletes (West Lake, Hanoi), gymnastic's 16 athletes (Hanoi Sports Palace) and boxing's nine athletes (Phan Dinh Phung Gymnasium, Ho Chi Minh City).

Indonesia is competing in 28 of the 32 sports. Hanoi hosts 21 sports and Ho Chi Minh City 11.

The rest of the Indonesian contingent, led by chief-de-mission Djoko Pramono, is scheduled to depart on Tuesday.

KONI chairman Agum Gumelar is to see off the contingent, comprising 247 athletes and officials, who will head to Hanoi and another 130 to Ho Chi Minh City.

The men's soccer team arrived on Tuesday in Hanoi, where the competition will begin on Sunday. Indonesia, which joins Group A with defending champions Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, will play its first match against Laos.

Indonesia traditionally won most medals at the games since it first began in 1977 until Thailand broke Indonesia's domination in 1985 on its own turf.

Thailand again came out as the overall champion when it hosted the event in 1995. On both occasions, Indonesia was pushed to second place.

Indonesia won the crown back two years later before it finished an unprecedented third in 1999 and 2001.

In the 2001 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur, Indonesia collected 72 gold medals to finish behind Malaysia (111) and Thailand (103).