Taekwondo prepared for SEAG

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Taekwondo Association has called up 40 young athletes to participate in a training program for the 20th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.

The association's secretary-general, Ahmad Zarkasih Hamid, said on Tuesday that the training program began on Dec. 31 in Yogyakarta, Surabaya in East Java and Batam Island in Riau.

He said the three locations had been picked for practical reasons.

"The three training camps are situated close to the athletes' homes and are thus convenient for them. The proximity will also help us to save money," he said.

School-aged athletes from Sumatra and Kalimantan will go to Batam, while national athletes from Central Java and Sumatra, most of whom are university students, will gather in Yogyakarta. National athletes from eastern parts of the country will train in Surabaya.

Zarkasih said that Satrio Rahardani was not among the athletes selected for the program, which is designed to prepare athletes for the SEA Games in Brunei in August. Satrio, who won a silver medal at the 13th Asian Games in December last year, will instead go to South Korea for an extended period of overseas training.

Satrio, better known as Gendon, is expected to represent Indonesia at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, where taekwondo will make its debut as a medal sport.

The country's other candidate for the Olympic taekwondo event is Asian Games bronze medalist Juana Wangsa.

Zarkasih also revealed that the association had appointed South Korean coach Oh Il-nam as a SEA Games training program consultant.

Separately, the director of Gelora Senayan sports complex, Yasidi Hambali, said he would welcome any request from sports federations that wanted to use facilities at the complex to train SEA Games-bound athletes.

"They can use our facilities for free for their training programs. I have already made it much easier to apply for the required permit," he said. (yan)