Temmy was not a drug addict when still an athlete: Coach
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
KONI, the Indonesian sports governing council, admits to being shocked about Southeast Asian Games triple-gold medalist Temmy Kusuma's drug-related death, while his former diving coach denied speculation that the athlete was a drug user when he was on the national team.
"I was shocked at the news," said Imron ZS, KONI chief currently assigned to supervise national athletes' preparation for the 2002 Asian Games in Pusan, South Korea.
"I vow to step up vigilance against drug abuse among the athletes ahead of the upcoming games," Imron told reporters on Friday.
Temmy, who earned golds for Indonesia in three consecutive biennial SEA Games from 1991 to 1995, reportedly died on Nov. 1 after he had overdosed on a drug called putaw (low-grade heroin), which caused fatal damage to his lungs, heart and liver.
The news of his death, however, reached the media a week later and appears to have revived suspicions about rife drug abuse among athletes.
However, Harly Ramayani, Temmy's former coach, ruled out the presumption that Temmy might have been addicted to drugs while still under her tutelage.
"Temmy was no longer an athlete when he started using. He quit the training center in 1997," she told The Jakarta Post. Her remarks, however, seem to contradict earlier statements to the press.
She had been quoted as saying that colleagues knew Temmy was a drug addict.
"That's not true. All those statements were created by the media," she claimed.
"When he quit he showed no signs (of being a drug abuser). Diving is not an easy game. It needs a high level of concentration. It's an extremely dangerous sport.
"If he had used drugs he would not have escaped because we hold regular lab tests every two or three months," added Harly, who was the assistant diving coach during Temmy's preparation for the 1995 SEA Games.
After the two briefly separated in 1996, she was back in charge of the then 21-year-old for the 1997 SEA Games where Temmy failed to win a medal before he resigned from the national team.
However, Temmy made a brief, albeit humble comeback, when he joined the Jakarta contingent at the 2000 National Sports Championships, where he won a bronze medal.
Harly said she feared that the lingering news was tainting the diving community and affecting the athletes now under her supervision for the 2003 SEA Games.
"I'm talking sincerely about the fact. Please, don't create a bad image for my sport and its athletes," she said.
Meanwhile, Singky Suwadji, a former equestrian athlete, attested to the rife drug abuse among Indonesian athletes.
"Drug cases are alarming. I'm not at all surprised at Temmy's case, because drug abuse among athletes has been mushrooming since the 1980s and reached an appalling level in 1995," Singky said as quoted by Antara.
He added that the death of Iwan Nardi was also caused by a drug overdose in 1982, and cited a near miss in Surabaya.
"Just recently in Surabaya, boxer Dobrak Artur was caught using drugs," said Singky, now with the group Granat, a national movement against drug abuse.