Rp 4 billion more needed for SEA Games
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's team for the 19th SEA Games needs Rp 4 billion (US$1,250,000) to pay for its athletes' last 10 days of training before the regional sports gathering.
Indonesia's chef de mission, Togi M. Hutagaol, told reporters yesterday that the money was expected to be handed over by the consortium later this week.
"I'm waiting for an answer from Setya Novanto (the National Sports Council's treasurer and the Indonesian team's training program's treasurer)," Togi said.
The Games consortium has thus far handed over Rp 24.23 billion to finance the training program.
The Indonesian SEA Games contingent, made up of 826 athletes and 203 officials, met President Soeharto at the State Palace Tuesday. Vice President Try Sutrisno and several cabinet ministers also attended the meeting.
The consortium had promised to hand over the rest of the Rp 35 billion budget by the end of September. The budget includes the ticket fares to return athletes to their hometowns.
Togi said the money was needed for accommodation -- including the athletes' board and lodging, their allowances, and the contract money for foreign coaches -- and for equipment, including uniforms.
"The uniforms are ready but the money isn't," he said.
"We are prioritizing the athletes' allowances and providing them from our own budget although we have yet to receive it from the consortium," said Togi, who declined to mention where the money came from.
Togi said some sports organizations had provided their own equipment without waiting for the money from the consortium.
"They are, among others, badminton, swimming, track and field, gymnastics and cycling," he said.
Closing
The sports council's vice chairman, Arie Sudewo, told a press conference that the organizing committee had decided not to schedule any matches during the closing ceremony.
"It's not true that we won't feature the soccer final in the closing ceremony because we don't have a chances of reaching it.
"The track and field association also proposed staging the marathon, in which it expects to get the gold, before the closing ceremony but we declined," he added.
The organizers plan to stage free-of-charge matches during the biennial event, which starts on Oct. 11 and ends on Oct. 19, by allowing the public to exchange their SEA Games stickers -- which are given out when people pay electricity, water and telephone bills and airport taxes.
"The sticker exchange is only to limit the number of spectators in each event, especially in indoor stadiums. If the venue is full, the sports organizers and the security will have to tell the spectators to watch another match," Arie said.
"If the venue is too full, we're afraid that participants might complain about the situation," he added.
Venues
Arie said military personnel would help with the cleaning up of the Senayan sports complex.
"We all see that Senayan is still dirty and the council plans to cooperate with the Jakarta Regional Military Command to clean up the complex," he said.
The hockey field, which cost Rp 1.5 billion, is expected to be finished on Monday, the director of the American-based AstroTurf Sophocles Sophocleous said yesterday.
"The field, including the lighting and the water system, will be ready on Monday. But there is no water to test if the system works," Sophocleous said.
The 6,000-square-meter artificial turf field will need to be sprinkled about 30 minutes before each match starts. It will need between one and three liters per square meter.
The newly finished squash courts, which will become the national squash center after the Games, will be inaugurated tomorrow.
Arie said the organizers canceled their plan to make artificial rain over the Jatiluhur dam because the water surface was high enough to meet the necessary standards. (yan)