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)