Taekwondoins for SEAG selected at national c'ships

Taekwondoins for SEAG selected at national c'ships

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Taekwondo Association (TI) will
select athletes to participate in the 2001 Kuala Lumpur Southeast
Asia (SEA) Games at the LG Cup national championships, to be held
in Jakarta next February.

The selected athletes will then be groomed for the World Cup
in Seoul in June. The event will also be used to observe the
strength of other Asian countries, to prepare national fighters
for the 2002 Pusan Asian Games.

TI chairman Suharto told a media briefing in the Taekwondo
Foundation office at the Korean Center on Jl. Gatot Subroto that
the body preferred to have centralized training instead of
decentralized, as suggested by the National Sports Council
(KONI).

"It will be more efficient to have centralized training,
otherwise we will experience many problems. The biggest problem
is the assignment of coaches to different places. We can easily
control and monitor the fighters' development with a centralized
training system," he said.

"However, centralized training also has problems, especially
regarding the education of athletes who are still students. But
we can transfer them to the Ragunan Sports School while at the
training center."

Also present at the event were executive chairman Setiawan
Sukardi, secretary general Adrian Lumowa, South Korean head coach
Oh Il-nam, and Kim Kwang-hyun of the Taekwondo Foundation.

Suharto also presented cash bonuses to junior fighters who
recently returned from the South East Asia Taekwondo Union
(SEATU) Championships in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Indonesia sent four men and four women in eight classes. The
fighters brought home two golds thanks to Emerald Margareth Dien
in the women's middleweight division and Derry Darmansyah in the
men's featherweight. Satrio Rahardani earned a silver in the
men's flyweight and Ertina Nopianti grabbed bronze in the
welterweight.

In general, Indonesia was fourth following host Vietnam, which
collected nine golds, the Philippines with three golds and
Malaysia with two golds and three silvers.

Coach Fadly Potu said Vietnamese athletes would be formidable
opponents in Kuala Lumpur as they have shown tremendous
achievements and a strong fighting spirit.

"Technically, all athletes have equal skills but the
Vietnamese have an intense fighting spirit. They also seem to
have matured from participation in many international
tournaments," he said.

"TI wasn't disappointed with the result because we only sent
half the team with junior players. Most of them have had no
international experience before," Suharto commented. "On the
other hand, we also kept our real strength from other SEA Games
participants."

Suharto said TI would groom its juniors in three major events
next year, as they are expected to be prepared for the 2004
Athens Olympic Games.

"TI is concentrating on the junior taekwondoins, whose ages
range between 15 and 18 years old, so they can reach their peak
performance at the next Olympics," he said.

"We can't rely on the seniors, as their golden age will be
over soon. The golden age is at 22 or 23 years old for full body
contact sports such as taekwondo."

In Seoul, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has
decided to confirm taekwondo, South Korea's fighting sport, as an
official Olympic event in 2004.

The decision came in a letter from IOC President Juan Antonio
Samaranch to South Korea's IOC executive board member Kim Un-
yong, Kim's office said.

"I am pleased to announce that during the recent meeting of
the Executive Board held from Dec. 11 to 13 in Lausanne, it has
been decided to confirm taekwondo as an Olympic sport," Samaranch
wrote in his letter as quoted by AFP news agency. (nvn)