Three archers to join Olympic training

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Archery Association (Perpani) invited three women archers to replace Nurfitriyana Saiman Lantang at the training program for the 2000 Olympic Games.

Perpani secretary-general Udi Harsono said the three archers were Purnama Pandiangan, Dahliana and Rusena Gelanteh. He said all three had been invited to Tuesday's meeting of the National Sports Council (KONI), which will mark the opening of the Olympic training program.

"I have notified the archers and they said they were ready to start the training," Udi told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

He also said he understood Nurfitriyana's reason for quitting the centralized training program after meeting with her on Saturday.

"Yana told me she was not physically ready for the Olympics. She said she was getting older and wanted to have a child. I can understand her reasons. It will be too late for her to have her first child if she delays it for another year," he said, referring to Nurfitriyana by her nickname. He added that Yana would turn 38 in March.

"In the past, if she asked to withdraw from any competition, we would persuade her to put off her decision by saying 'Come on, Yana, you have a job here,'" he added.

Udi also said Yana might have felt unprepared for the Olympics because the training program would only begin in February.

"If we had started training last November, Yana might not have been nervous because she would have been physically prepared. But at the time, we didn't have the money to start the program and had to wait for financial support from KONI," he said.

Hamdiah has qualified for the Olympics in the individual event, while Yana and Lusiana Elizabeth Sumampouw are still waiting to hear their Olympic fate.

The International Archery Federation will announce on June 26 which countries will take part in the women's team archery event at the Olympics.

With the new lineup, Udi said Perpani hoped the women's archery team would contribute a medal at this year's Olympics. The women's archery team brought home a silver medal in 1988.

"Purnama, Rusena and Dahliana were silver medalists in the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima, after China. And Rusena managed to beat a South Korean archer at that event. We had thought that the South Korean archers were undefeatable. I think this new lineup has a good chance," he said.

Udi said archery coaches Lee Jae-hyun, a South Korean national, and Daniel Lumalesil faced a large task in raising the physical and mental fitness of Indonesia's archers.

"We still discuss the best training program for them. We are waiting for Mr. Lee to return from his year-end leave to South Korea. We are still optimistic about the archers' chances. In the Olympics, the archers' mental stability will decide the winner, not merely the physical condition and technical skills," he said. (ivy)