Soeharto to open world archery meet

Soeharto to open world archery meet

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto is expected to officially
open the 38th World Archery Championships, the first event of its
kind to be held in Indonesia, on Aug. 1.

"The president has confirmed his willingness to open the
tournament and let the organizers use his name for the
championships trophy," chairman of the Indonesian Archery
Association, Oetojo Oesman, said yesterday.

Soeharto also agreed to serve as the patron of the committee
of the Aug. 1-6 championships which have been included on the
sports agenda marking the country's golden year celebration.

Oetojo, who is also the Minister of Justice, said that the
national archery governing body has set a major target of winning
as many Olympic berths as possible during the one-week event.

A total of 352 men's and women's archers from 41 countries
will be vying in the Jakarta world event for 108 tickets for the
1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. The Olympics next year will field
180 competitors.

The race for the remaining Olympic spots will continue in
other tournaments abroad. The world archery body, FITA, will also
award 18 wild card entries to certain countries.

Oetojo said Indonesian women's athletes seem to have a better
chance of making appearances in Atlanta than their male
counterparts. "We are focusing on short-distance events," Oetojo
said.

Nurfitriyana and Purnama Pandiangan, members of the national
trio team which earned Indonesia its first Olympic silver in
1986, line up the national team made up of 10 men's and 10
women's archers for the world meet.

They will have their last testing ground in the national
championships to be held here from June 13 through 18. Australia
and China will take part in the national event in order to get
used to the venue.

The world championships will for the first time contest the
compound event in addition to the traditional, manual recurving
event. "We don't expect too much from this new event," said
Oetojo.

The new event requires archers to use mechanical tools which
enable the arrow to move twice as fast and to reach speeds of up
to 300 feet per second.

Oetojo said the organizing committee desperately needs to
raise funds through sponsorships. "We hope to collect between 60
and 70 percent of the estimated budget of Rp 2 billion
(US$900,000) from private companies," he said.

He added that the organizers have so far managed only to gain
one third of the estimated budget.

"We probably wasted some weeks when we conducted the election
of our new top officials recently," Oetojo said. He promised,
however, to complete the fund raising program on time.

A two-day FITA congress will follow the world championships,
with the congressmen electing some of FITA leadership board
members. (amd)