SEA Games contingent may top 600

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The National Sports Council (KONI) said on Monday the Indonesian contingent for the 23rd Southeast Asia (SEA) Games was likely to top 600 athletes, following the recent addition of dozens of events in the biannual event.

KONI's head of development Djoko Pramono said additional events at the Games in Manila later this year would include the team competitions in badminton and tennis.

"There are dozens of additional events in the 2005 SEA Games in Manila," Djoko said.

"This will consequently increase the number of our athletes, although not in every event."

A meeting is set for Wednesday to decide the exact number of athletes, he added..

Currently, a total of 583 athletes from 36 sports are in training for the Games.

KONI is hoping for a better result than Indonesia's third place finish behind Vietnam and Thailand at the 2003 SEA Games.

The addition of badminton, in which Indonesia is the leader in Southeast Asia, will provide more medal opportunities. But the council has acknowledged that Indonesia's chance of achieving its goal to return to the top of the medal standings for the first time since the 1997 Games in Jakarta is slim, mainly due to the current poor performance in athletics and swimming.

Djoko also said he was disappointed that 11 sports organizations were a month overdue in starting centralized training for the Games.

"Golf, dance sport, soccer, bowling, karate, shooting, volleyball, equestrian, swimming, judo and basketball sports organizations have not yet the started training center program," he said.

All organizations agreed to begin their programs on April 1, but some have yet to implement them fully, with reasons ranging from the late arrival of athletes from their hometowns or the unavailability of official coaches.

Djoko was not prepared to accept excuses.

"They should realize that SEA Games is to uphold the name of Indonesia at international level, but I just don't understand why they have failed to implement the training center program as scheduled."