SEA Games tennis players share in Rp 150m bonus
JAKARTA (JP): The national tennis team from the 20th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games received a bonus of Rp 150 million (US$20,436) from the Indonesia Tennis Association (Pelti) on Monday.
Indonesia won two of seven golds on offer in the recently concluded biennial event in Brunei Darussalam. The golds came in the women's doubles and women's team events. The duo of Wynne Prakusya and Romana Tedjakusuma combined to win the doubles, and joined teammates Liza Andriyani and Wukirasih Sawondari in taking the team title. Wynne and Romana will each receive Rp 10 million, while the team will divide another Rp 35 million.
The Indonesian's defeated the Philippines to win the team gold, and Wynne and Romana beat compatriots Liza and Wukirasih in the all-Indonesian doubles finals.
In the women's singles, Wynne was defeated by Filipino Maricris Fernandez in the finals and had to settle for the silver.
The national tennis players also won three silvers and five bronzes in the men's doubles, mixed doubles, women's singles and women's doubles.
The men's team of Suwandi, Febi Widhiyanto, Hendri Susilo Pramono and Yusmawan Fahmi failed to overcome Thailand in the finals and walked away from the SEA Games with a silver.
The head of the Indonesian tennis contingent to the SEA Games, Martina Widjaja, said the physical conditioning of the Indonesian players was weak due to time constraints on their training.
"We couldn't force them to work harder on their physical condition, so we had to combine the technical and physical training," she said.
Martina said Pelti must pay more attention to the training of its athletes and provide them more competition to better groom them in the future.
"In Southeast Asia, we have tight competition with the neighboring countries of Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines. We must be aware, especially for the development of our junior players," she said.
Pelti chairman Tanri Abeng said Pelti must work harder to improve the country's athlete-development system.
"Other countries have improved their athletes while we are being left behind. We must work harder to be able to compete with them and beat them," he said during the reopening of Pelti's office, which was under renovation for three months.
Pelti treasurer A Qoyum Tjandranegara said Pelti would build a 10-room dormitory in the Kemayoran tennis center in Central Jakarta as part of its effort to groom junior and national players.
The project will cost nearly Rp 3 billion and will be financed by PT Perusahaan Gas Negara, where Qoyum served as the director of the state-owned company.
Earlier, coach Suharyadi said from the four women players, only Wynne had the slightest chance to qualify for the Olympics.
"Wynne is ranked in the 190s in the world, but she still has to fight harder to qualify for the Olympics because we face a tough challenge from Asian countries, including China, South Korea and Japan. We can't rely on the wild card entry because Asia only gets one for the Olympics," he said.
Men's singles players Febi and Hendri departed on Monday evening to compete in the German league to improve their world rankings. (yan)