Sports body urges more sponsorships
Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Indonesian Amateur Athletics Association (PASI) hopes that more companies will support more track and field athletes, especially those with considerable achievement, in an effort to woo more new talent to the sports.
"The support, such as rewards, when given to athletes who excel in their disciplines will surely motivate other athletes to follow, which in turn will create healthy competition," PASI secretary-general Tigor Tanjung said on Tuesday.
"On the other hand, such corporate involvement is an effective way of promoting the company and its products," he added.
Tigor was speaking during the presentation of motorcycles from PT Pan Jianshe Milinia Indonesia to female middle-distance runner Supriati Sutono and pole vaulter Ni Putu Desi Margawati, who won gold medals at the Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur last month.
Supriati won the women's 10,000-meter and 5,000-meter events in record-breaking times. She improved the 5,000m record from 16 minutes and 11.60 seconds to 16:08.93 and the 10,000m record from 34:02.26 to 33:50.06.
Supriati, however, failed to smash her 1,500m record of 4:21.50 and had to be content with the silver. Vietnamese Pham Dinh Khanh grabbed the gold medal in 4:21.87, to leave Supriati's record intact for the next two years.
Desi set a maiden record for the women's pole vault event by leaping 3.90 meters, a good 10 centimeters lower than her own personal best.
President of the motorcyle distributor company, Henry Sung, said in his remarks that the reward of two motorcycles was an early step of his company's involvement in sports development in the country.
"The company still needs to acquire the knowledge of how to support the sports industry here because we are a new player. We need to learn what the rules are," Sung told reporters.
"We will deal with all proposals and evaluate them in such a way that our involvement can affect the larger part of the community," he added.
Tigor also invited the company to sponsor athletics meets in the future, despite the fact that the sports remain unable to attract huge spectators.
As for the Asian Games preparations, Tigor said that so far PASI had proposed three athletes to the National Sports Council (KONI) for a continental sports meet, to be held in Pusan, South Korea next year. The training session for the Asiad has been set to begin next January.
The candidates are Desi, woman sprinter Irene Truitje Joseph and woman hammer thrower Yurita Aryani.
"We believe they have a great chance of matching their Asian peers," Tigor said.
"It is up to KONI whether to accept all the names or not. Once accepted, PASI will prepare a long-term training program for them, including hiring foreign coaches or sending them abroad."
Tigor said that PASI badly needed a foreign coach for Yurita as her event was a technical one that required the latest techniques.
"We have an intention to send her to Australia. It will be ideal for her to prepare herself for the Asian Games there for about nine months. We are approaching an Australian coach who gave us a coaching clinic earlier this year."
He said that if KONI refused to cover the overseas stint proposal, PASI would look for other arrangements.
As for Irene, Tigor said KONI had agreed to provide her a foreign coach from Jamaica as part of a reciprocal deal for an Indonesian badminton coach. For Desi, PASI will keep Hadi Wacono to improve Desi's performance.