RI's karate team eyes golds at SEAG
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)