Tae kwon do nationals to be held

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Indonesian Tae kwon do Association (PB TI) announced on Wednesday its upcoming national championship would be used to select athletes for the Southeast Asia (SEA) Games later this year.

"We will hold the national championship next week," Setiawan Sukardi, PBTI head of daily organizational affairs, said.

The national championship will be officially opened on Sunday at a new tae kwon do center in Cibubur, East Jakarta.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is scheduled to inaugurate the new tae kwon do center, which was built by the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) on a 2.5-hectare plot owned by the government.

The national championship, to be held from Monday to Wednesday, will feature eight classes for male and female fighters respectively.

Those classes are finn, fly, bantam, feather, light, welter, middle and heavy, ranging from under 54 kilograms (kgs) to over 84 kgs for men and 47 kgs to over 72 kgs for women.

A total of 321 male and female athletes from 29 provinces, including four from Aceh, have confirmed their participation to the national championship.

The sport's powerhouses of Jakarta, West Java, Central Java and East Java will each send eight male and female fighters.

Athletes recruited to Indonesia Awakens, an Asian Games training center program, automatically earn spots on the SEA Games team.