Surakarta to host Olympic 10K

JAKARTA: Surakarta, a Sultanate town in Central Java, is likely to host a 10K Olympic Day run in early July, a top official of the National Sports Council (KONI) said on Monday.

The program is part of the worldwide Olympic movement pursued by the International Olympic Council (IOC), which will donate to each of the organizing countries US$2,500 in financial assistance.

"We may choose Surakarta to remind us it was there that Indonesia first staged the National Sports Championships (PON) back in 1948," Kusnan Ismukanto, KONI's chief in charge of foreign affairs, said.

Kusnan said the Olympic Day run would fall on June 22. "But it would be too close to the Jakarta 10K on June 29. Therefore, we put it back until early July," he said.--JP