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.