RI to host Asia shooting tourney
RI to host Asia shooting tourney
JAKARTA (JP): Twenty countries have confirmed their
participation in the 8th Asian Shooting Championships
to be held here and in Bogor in October.
"We have invited all the 38 member countries of the Asian
Shooting Confederation. Our neighbors Australia, New Zealand and
Papua New Guinea are also invited," Soetiyoso, a top official of
the Indonesian Shooting Association, said yesterday.
He hopes that at least 25 countries will respond positively to
the invitation to the Oct. 1 to Oct. 9 championships. "So far 20
countries have confirmed their registration," he added.
China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Qatar and Saudi Arabia
are among the countries which have signed up.
The Indonesian Shooting Association will need Rp 980 million
(US$439,719) to finance the championships. It has secured Rp 500
million from donations and is attempting to cover the rest
through sponsorship.
The championships serve as a qualification round for the 1996
Atlanta Olympic Games and offer the participating countries an
opportunity to earn as many as possible minimal qualification
scores for each event in order to expand their potential quotas
for a place at the Olympics.
The championships will feature 12 men's events and seven
women's competitions. The men's events include 50m free rifle,
50m free rifle prone, 10m air rifle, 50m free pistol, 25m rapid
fire pistol, 25m center fire pistol, 25m standard pistol, 10m air
pistol, trap, skeet, double trap and 10m running target.
The women's events are 50m standard rifle, 50m standard rifle
prone, 10m air rifle, 25m sport pistol, double trap and 10m
running target.
As host, Indonesia will compete in all events.
The championships will be held at two shooting ranges.
The Senayan shooting range will be the site of indoor events
and the Army's shooting range in Cilodong, Bogor, will be used
for the skeet, trap and double trap events.
The Senayan shooting range is the only venue in the world
which is strategically situated inside a city, but most of its
shooting equipment is outdated and the indoor range is poorly
ventilated. And since part of the site was sold for an apartment
project in 1991, the shrunken range is no longer suitable for
certain shooting events. Hence, the Army's Cilodong range has to
be used as well.
A team from the World Shooting Body is scheduled to reinspect
the two shooting ranges by the end of June for a final decision
on their eligibility.
Soetiyoso said Indonesia is not yet counted among the world's
top shooting countries. Indonesian female sharpshooters finished
second in the double trap event contested as an exhibition at
last year's Hiroshima Asian Games. In the last Asian
championships in Beijing in 1991, in which all the 38 Asian
Shooting Confederation member countries took part, Indonesia
finished 12th. (arf)