RI cyclists set to take part at World Cup series

Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Indonesian Cycling Association (ISSI) plans to send its mountain bike (MTB) cyclists to the World Cup series, especially those taking place in the Asia Pacific region.

"ISSI wants to improve the cyclists' level of competition by taking part in more world contests. We have had good results in the Southeast Asian region," ISSI official Budi Aryanto said on Monday.

"Now we must step forward to gain a higher level of achievement at the Asian and world levels," he added.

Resa Suseanty won the women's downhill gold medal at the Kuala Lumpur 2001 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games last month. Setiawan Sugianto also won the gold medal at the men's event.

Setiawan also holds the men's Asian title. He will defend his title at the Asian Championships, which will take place in Pusan, South Korea on Saturday and Sunday. Also taking part are Resa, Ferry Sonic and Benny Setiawan.

"The problem is ISSI doesn't have enough funds to send them abroad to take part in the series so we must find sponsorships. Especially because the World Cup series takes place in 10 countries," said Budi.

"But as there are two series taking place in Australia and Japan, we may send cyclists at least to Australia."

Budi said Indonesian cyclists were not ready yet to have professional ties with sponsors because they were not able to independently manage their schedule.

He warned that Indonesia might face a downturn in achievements in the track events during the next three years following the lack of tournaments available.

"The Hanoi 2003 SEA Games and Palembang 2004 National Games (PON) will not host track events as both cities do not have velodromes," he said.

"The only events we can test their abilities at are the annual Asian championships. These events, however, are not enough to keep up our cyclists' performance."

"The cyclists' motivation will sink if they don't have the chance to show progress," he continued.

Indonesian SEA Games cyclists grabbed 11 gold medals out of the 20 cycling events. The other nine gold medals were presented to track cyclists.