RI female beach spikers sure to attend Olympics

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's pair of Eta and Timmy look certain to beat the Czechs on the second day of the main draw of the Women's World Beach Volleyball Championship's seven leg at Kuta Beach, Bali, today.

The Indonesian pair, the country's hopes for a berth at the Atlanta Olympic Games, finished 17th by the end of the championship's fifth leg in Algarve, Portugal, some months ago.

"If they can do so, and I am sure they can, chances are that we will tie 16th place with Norway on points aggregate," Mohammad Soli, secretary-general of the Indonesian Volleyball Association, told The Jakarta Post by phone from Kuta yesterday.

If placed 16th, it means Indonesia will be eligible for the 1996 Atlanta Games. Each qualified country is entitled to send only one team to the Atlanta Games except the United States, which, as host, reserves the right to field two teams.

However, the trip to Atlanta is still a long way off for the Indonesian pair because they still have to take part in the sixth leg in Puerto Rico -- which was postponed until next November due to a hurricane -- as well as the remaining four legs, Soli added.

The 11th and final leg will be held at the Copacabana Beach, Brazil, between late February to early March next year.

Including the championship's fifth leg in Algarve, the Indonesian pair has garnered 32 points and Norway 36.

In the main draw's opener, which was officially opened yesterday by the chairman of the National Sports Council, Wismoyo Arismunandar, Eta and Timmy added two more points by beating England, though they were also beaten by the strong German pair. Norway, on the other hand, remained the same as it was upset by the United States yesterday.

"The Czech team looks feeble and it ranks below us. So I'm pretty sure we will win," Soli said from Bali. A win over the Czech team would raise Indonesia's aggregate points to 36 to catch up with Norway and promote it from the 17th rank to the 16th.

The main draw pits 24 teams against each other, 17 of which were the top 17 from the previous leg and the other seven were the best seven taken from the qualification draw which was completed on Thursday. (arf)