RI climbers to take part in Asian championships

JAKARTA (JP): Ten men and 10 women national climbers are to join the fifth Asian Wall Climbing Championships being held here over the weekend.

Hendrikus, the organizing committee's chairman, said yesterday that all national climbers are expected to develop their technical skills from other participants.

Eleven countries are expected to take part in the US$170,000 championships, featuring competitions with a difficulty level of 5.13 for the men's class and 5.12 for the women's class.

For the championships, which are scheduled for today and tomorrow at Pasar Festival, Kuningan, South Jakarta, Indonesia is relying on its hope Ronald Novar Mamarimbing, runner-up of the third championship held in China.

The country also has high hopes placed on Yudhistira and Yusa Kanarohan, the country's best second stringers, while Eta Hendrawati and Yuyun Yuniar are the country's backbone in the women's division.

Chairman of the Indonesian Rock/Wall Climbing Federation, Setiawan Djody, hoped that national climbers will be able to give their best performances.

"I don't want to bluff. I just want them to do their best," he said.

"Our toughest rivals are coming from Japan and South Korea. In Asia, we are ranked third behind them," Hendrikus said.

Hong Kong, Iran, India, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Chinese Taipei have confirmed their participation in the event. China, Pakistan and Nepal will miss the competition.

Hendrikus said that Indonesia has at least 10 national competitions each year.

"I think we have more competitions compared to other Asian countries," he said.

"I hope that we can increase the quality of our national competitions," Djody said.

An International Council for Competition Climbing delegate, Sang Tae-cho of South Korea, said that the biggest problem in staging an international event is erecting the wall.

The artificial rock, which is 15 meters high and nine meters wide, is made of fiber resin polyester and is imported from France.

Hendrikus said that the organizers spent Rp 250 million (US$106,000) on building the artificial rock.

He added that Indonesia is scheduled to host the World Cup competition next year, either in Jakarta or Bali. (yan)