Tennis coach questions players call-up
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Febi Widhiyanto and troubled Hendri Susilo Pramono have been summoned to the Indonesian tennis squad for the 2002 Asian Games, but their mentor is far from enthusiastic.
The invitation for Febi and Hendri to join the national training camp for the Games was notified to their coach Deddy Prasetyo on Tuesday. The letters were signed by the Indonesian Tennis Association (Pelti) deputy chief in charge of development affairs, Aga Soemarno.
But Deddy said that he doubted Pelti's sincerity given the fact that the two letters were dated Nov. 5, yet only reached Dedy after two weeks.
Deddy also quipped the call-up because the letters were not signed by the appropriate official.
"This kind of letter should have been under the signature of secretary general Sugeng Sarjadi. Do they really mean business?" he said.
Asked whether he would have his proteges meet the call-up, he told The Jakarta Post, "I don't know. We will need to think it over".
Deddy's long-standing resentment with Pelti culminated in September when both Febi and Hendri were left out of the Davis Cup team that played China. Deddy has always criticized Pelti's top officials for their policy of benefiting their players when it came to national team selection for national duties.
"Now they want Febi and Hendri. Pelti has eaten its own words," Deddy said.
Febi and Hendri, should they proceed, will make an eight- strong team. The others are Suwandi and Peter Handoyo in the men's division and Yayuk Basuki, Romana Tedjakusuma, Wynne Prakusya and Angelique Wijaya in the women's category.
In a separate development, the Lampung chapter of the Indonesian Weightlifting, Powerlifting and Bodybuilding Association (PABBSI) questioned the list of top-ranked lifters for the Asian Games, which was released by KONI last Friday as it excluded several gold medalists from the Kuala Lumpur 2001 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
KONI announced women lifters Sri Indriyani in 48kg, Rosmaniar in 51kg, Lisa Rumbewas in 51kg and man lifter Erwin Abdullah in 77kg weightclasses as the top-ranked athletes.
"KONI failed to include SEA Games gold medalists such as Tanti Pratiwi and Yadi Setiadi in the list although they meet the requirements," chairman of PABBSI Lampung Imron Rosidi said.
Sri only grabbed a bronze medal while Rosmaniar finished fourth in Kuala Lumpur.
Imron said PABBSI's central board should clarify the selection because some of the lifters listed for the Asian Games training camp did not fare well in Kuala Lumpur.