RI wants wushu at the 1997 SEA Games
RI wants wushu at the 1997 SEA Games
JAKARTA (JP): The National Sports Council should try its best to include wushu, a Chinese martial art, in the upcoming Southeast Asian Games here next year, an official said yesterday.
Inclusion of the sport has been supported by seven southeast Asian countries.
Antonius Haliman, chairman of the Indonesian Wushu Association, said yesterday during a hearing with the Council that the seven countries which support wushu for the 1997 Games are Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.
Rio Tambunan, deputy of the council's foreign affairs division, told participants of the hearing that the seven countries wanted wushu to be included at the last SEA Games in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Unfortunately, host Thailand declined to field it.
"It is a chance for us to field the martial art here," he said, "We've received support from seven countries. All we have to do is to renegotiate with them."
Antonius said that if wushu were included, he is optimistic that Indonesia would have the chance to grab 11 gold medals from 19 divisions, nine from the tao class and the rest from sanshu, a full body contact division of the sport.
"Indonesia dominates the sanshu division," he said, "The major strengths of our team in the division are marines and soldiers."
"I'm sure we can grab all five gold medals in sanshu and eight out of 11 in tao," he added.
Foreign coaches
Hiring foreign coaches could be one of the ways to help realize the ambition.
"We have 12 Chinese and 35 local coaches," Antonius said.
"The foreign coaches are training athletes in 12 provinces," he added. They are placed in Java, Sumatra, South and West Kalimantan, Nusa Tenggara and North Sulawesi.
To select athletes for the 19th SEA Games, the association will hold a championship in Surabaya.
"The Kapolri Cup will be held by the end of next month," Antonius said, "It aims at selecting athletes for the SEA Games."
Antonius said the National Games in September will also be a time to select provincial athletes for the national team.
The association will send athletes to the Asian championship in Manila in November this year.
To prepare athletes for the SEA Games, the association will start a national training program early next year.
"The training program will start in January and go until June next year," he said. "From June to November, we'll send our athletes to try out abroad," he added.
The athletes will participate in the World Championship in Belgium on August 1997 as a warm-up to the SEA Games.
"We hope that athletes will be ready for the SEA Games in December," he said. (05)