RI judo squad not likely to train overseas

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

While an overseas outing would likely help Indonesia's judokas prepare for the upcoming Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, the athletes will likely have to make do with training at home.

Aji Kusmantri, an official at the Judo Association of Indonesia (PJSI), said on Tuesday the team had plans to train overseas but no country had been decided on.

He said the team might have to be content with training at home prior to their departure to Vietnam, the host country of the 22nd SEA Games in December, given that no overseas tournaments were suitable for the athletes.

"The world championships in Japan and an Asian event in South Korea are the only two tournaments around, but the level of competition at the tournaments would be too high for our judokas, who are only looking for a warm-up prior to the Games," Aji, who is the deputy secretary-general of PJSI, told The Jakarta Post.

The world championships will take place in September and the Asian event in October.

"If the athletes have to stay at home it shouldn't be a problem. As long as they can optimize their training, they can do their best at the SEA Games," he said.

PJSI has 32 athletes currently training in their respective provinces. Among the athletes are four gold medalists from the 2001 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur -- Kresna Bayu, Dwi Sihmanto, I Wayan Sutikno and Endang Sri Lestari.

Meanwhile, Aprilia Marzuki, who won silver at the 2001 SEA Games, is training in Germany, where she attends university in Damstadt. She is being supervised by a German trainer, Aji said.

These 32 athletes will be pared down to 16 -- eight men and eight women -- at the Wismoyo Cup in Surabaya, East Java, this August.

Asked about the team's medal prospects in Vietnam, Aji said it was difficult to predict. "Thailand, the Philippines, Myanmar and host Vietnam should be our toughest opponents."

Thailand won the most gold medals in judo at the 2001 Sea Games, with seven. Indonesia won four golds, while Myanmar took two.

One judo observer here said the 29-year-old Bayu would be the favorite to win the men's heavyweight division in Vietnam.

"If it is just the Southeast Asian region, Bayu is still the contender to beat," Eka Setia Wirawan, Bayu's former trainer, said.

Bayu, who has taken part in the Olympics in 1996 in Atlanta and 2000 in Sydney, is reportedly still recovering from the back injury that kept him out of the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, South Korea.