Tae kwon do streamlines elite training program

Tae kwon do streamlines elite training program

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

After returning with a single gold from December's Southeast
Asian (SEA) Games, the Indonesian Taekwondo Association (TI) has
slashed the number of athletes in its elite training program and
is recruiting a new batch of coaches.

TI secretary-general Ade Lukman said on Monday that only four
of eight athletes selected to the Indonesia Awakens (IA) program
would remain in training for the 2006 Asian Games, with another
athlete to be called up.

Basuki Nugroho, who won Indonesia's lone gold medal at the
Games, 2005 SEA Games silver medalist Taufik Krisna, bronze
medalist Rosandi and former women's world champion Juana Wangsa
Putri are still part of the program.

Muhammad Dalam Imam, who was the bronze medalist in the 2002
Asian Games, has also been called up to the program, which has
been implemented since 2003 for 11 sports in the runup to the
Asia in Doha next December.

"The remaining IA athletes who did not perform (to
expectations) in the 2005 SEA Games will return to their home
provinces," Ade said, adding that another athlete may be
recruited in the future.

A group of new coaches also would be appointed to "refresh"
the atmosphere at the national training camp, Ade said, with
their names to be announced later in the week.

"We need to solidify our team now to meet our target of
winning one gold in the Asian Games," he said. "We still have the
chance but it will be difficult, so we need some changes in
national training."

Indonesia's one gold, four silver and six bronze medals in tae
kwon do in the Philippine Games put it behind the host team's six
golds, Vietnam (4), Thailand (3) and Malaysia (2).

Ade attributed the failure to the limited stock of athletes,
lack of competition and the use of separate training camps in
Jakarta and Central Java.

"Now with the new squad, we hope we will have a stronger and
more solid team for the Asian Games. We will centralize our
training camp and evaluate them every month," he said.

He said the athletes and coaches would start national training
for the 2006 Asian Games on Jan. 15.

Indonesia has set a target of 10 gold medals from all sports
in Doha.