Tae kwon do trainer Oh Il-nam under fire

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Former national tae kwon do coaches Alex Harijanto and Dasantio Prihadi urged the Indonesian Tae Kwon Do Association (TI) on Monday to dismiss Korean trainer Oh Il Nam.

Alex, who is currently chief of development affairs at the Central Java chapter of TI, expressed disappointment that the past decade had seen the performance of athletes continually decline.

South Korean citizen Oh Il Nam joined the Indonesian Tae Kwon Do association as a trainer in 1994.

"It seems like Oh has failed to do his job in elevating the performance of our athletes. The country failed to get positive results at the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, the Asian Games and the Olympic Games," Alex said.

The country won six golds at the 1997 SEA Games in Jakarta, but had a disappointing one gold at the 1999 games and two golds in both the 2001 and 2003 games.

Indonesia's top tae kwon do athletes, Juana Wangsa Putri and Satriyo Rahadani, crashed out in the first round at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

Juana's early exit was unexpected given her impressive run leading up to the Olympics, which saw her win gold at the 2003 World Championship in Paris.

At the Asian level, Juana and Dalam Imam ended the 2002 Asian Games with only bronzes, which was seen as another disappointing result.

Given this record, Alex said that Oh Il Nam should not be kept on as a trainer.

However, he said the South Korean should be retained to help train Indonesian coaches. "He is more qualified in that respect," he said.

Dasantio, who is currently a coach at the association's West Java chapter, said Oh should have been fired as early as 2000, as promised by the association during its annual meeting that year in Palembang.

"At the meeting, we agreed that we would not employ foreign trainers to handle our athletes .... I don't know why the central board is violating that agreement," he said.

Admitting to being surprised by these comments about Oh, TI secretary-general Ade Lukman said Oh was doing a good job, pointing to the last two Olympics as examples.

"Why are they saying these things about Oh Il Nam? He's been training Indonesian athletes for quite a long time and I think he's been doing his job pretty well," Ade said.

Ade said Oh had helped Indonesian tae kwon dos make it to the Olympics in Sydney and Athens.

"We may have lost (early) in Athens, but that they made it to the Olympics is a measurement of Oh's performance. It's not a standardized (measurement). Other people may differ in their judgment," he said.

Oh faces a tough task ahead when the country's tae kwon dos, now training under the Indonesia Awakens program, take part in the 2006 Asian Games in Qatar.