Three archers to join Olympic training

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)