RI's karate team eyes golds at SEAG

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia expects to retain its domination in karate in the 2001 Kuala Lumpur Southeast Asian (SEA) Games by clinching the same number of golds the country's athletes grabbed last year in the Brunei Darussalam Games.

The Indonesian Karate-do Federation (FORKI) secretary- general, Hendardji, told The Jakarta Post in a telephone interview on Friday that the federation had submitted its target to the National Sports Council (KONI) chairman Wismoyo Arismunandar. However, he declined to reveal the exact figure of gold medals they hope to grab next year.

"I can't tell you the number yet because I don't want to boast about our target. But we have submitted our target to Pak Wismoyo," he said, while confirming it was similar to what Indonesia achieved in the last Games. "You can say the target is about the same."

Indonesia collected a total of seven golds, three silvers and six bronzes from 19 events in last year's Games. Malaysia also grabbed seven golds while Vietnam earned four.

"Malaysia will be our toughest contender in our quest to be the best in karate," said Hendardji.

To fulfill its goal, FORKI is preparing 29 karatekas in decentralized training centers for the biennial event.

The 29 karatekas comprise 10 fighters from East Java, six from Jakarta, four from North Sumatra, three from North Sulawesi, and two fighters from West Java, South Sulawesi and Irian Jaya.

"During the decentralized phase, they are given physical training sessions at their own places, except for fighters from North Sulawesi who are already in Jakarta," Hendardji said.

The decentralized training (first phase), from Oct. 30 to Jan. 31, is intended to improve the fighters' physical fitness before they are admitted to the centralized training center in Jakarta.

Only fighters who won gold medals or achieved good results during the Surabaya 2000 National Games and Palembang 2000 Army Chief of Staff Cup are given decentralized training.

They are expected to have VO2max (oxygen capacity in blood) of at least 45 for women and 50 for men. Their 30-meter sprint speed should be 5.0 seconds for women and 4.3 seconds for men. Men fighters must be able to do 55 sit-ups while women, 50 sit-ups.

All the karatekas will undergo a physical fitness screening test from Feb.5 until Feb. 7. There will also be a special test for events with more than one candidate on Feb. 8 and Feb.9.

"The results will be announced on Feb. 10. There will be only 21 fighters in the centralized training center. Indonesia will place one participant in each event without any reserve fighters," Hendardji said.

"The centralized training center in Jakarta deals with match technics and strategies. The second phase is from February to September," he added.

FORKI will decide the team's coach sometime in mid-January.

"The coaches will be selected by considering their experience and achievements. We'll also consider their seniority," said Hendardji, a Military Police colonel.

"FORKI will ask the opinion of karate schools in selecting the team's coach." (nvn)