SEA Games venues ready, satisfied organizers say

JAKARTA (JP): The 19th SEA Games organizers are satisfied with preparations being made at sports venues outside Senayan sports complex.

Organizing committee competition deputy M. Hindarto said the venues, which are being renovated by the Jakarta administration, were nearly ready and the only remaining problems were with air conditioning.

"The administration has maintained all the sports facilities in the city since they were used for the National Games last year. They only needed minor renovations, like painting," he said.

Hariwadhy Siregar, the organizers' facilities official, said that from the 12 venues inspected by the organizers yesterday, only the velodrome in Rawamangun needed major renovation.

Siregar said the administration must layer the track surface, replace the cooling down area and renovate some rooms for doping tests and an athletes lounge.

Another major renovation was at Sunter lake, North Jakarta, which is the water skiing venue.

"We need to clean the water and build a permanent secretariat office and spectator seats. The city plans to use the lake as the base camp for the Jakarta water skiing office," he said.

The administration has to build a retaining wall on the east side to prevent pollution entering the lake. But the administration lacks the funds and the consortium will not pay for the wall.

Arie said that since the event would take place in the dry season, the administration did not need to build a wall soon.

The Bulungan sports hall, for taekwondo, and the Kuningan hall, for boxing, in South Jakarta; the Gymnastic Hall and the East Jakarta Hall, for sepak takraw; and the North Jakarta Hall, for karate, only need air conditioning.

"We're not responsible for installing air conditioners because the Games consortium will install them," Siregar said.

The administration has spent Rp 3 billion (US$1,034,483) renovating the 12 venues.

The organizers' vice chairman Arie Sudewo, who is also the National Sports Council vice chairman, led the four-day inspection of venues, which started Tuesday.

Arie seemed happier with the renovations than on his first day at Senayan sports complex.

Renovations at the complex are far from complete, especially the hockey field and squash courts.

The hockey field turf is still only half laid and the lighting and drainage system have not been installed because the constructor is still waiting for a foreign expert to arrive.

The field should be ready early next month.

The consortium has received only five electronic score boards from official supplier Seiko, worth about Rp 2 billion.

The boards will be installed at the swimming and water polo, archery, gymnastics and track and field venues.

"We'll have the manual scoring system ready just in case the new system breaks. I have asked the organizers and they say it won't affect the competition standards," Arie said.

Sound equipment, provided by official supplier National Panasonic, may not be used at all venues.

"We'll use back-up systems to anticipate any problems during the event," he said. (yan)