Three sports named Indonesia's mainstays in medal tally
Three sports named Indonesia's mainstays in medal tally
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's chef de mission for the 20th
Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, Mochammad Hindarto, named three
sports as the backbone in the country's efforts to earn as many
gold medals as possible.
Hindarto named tae kwon do, pencak silat and karate as the
sports which had the biggest possibilities to contribute gold for
the contingent, which aims to retain the overall title by winning
70 gold medals.
In the 1997 Games here, tae kwon do contributed six gold,
karate 14 gold and pencak silat 15 gold medals.
"Indonesia and Thailand will fight really hard to retain the
overall title. The medal tally difference will not be really
great. Based on reports from our embassy in Bangkok, Thailand
plans to earn 67 of 235 gold medals on offer," he said.
The 67 medals will likely come from swimming, with 15, boxing,
seven, track and field, 16, and karate with an estimated seven
golds.
"If our track and field athletes manage to contest with the
Thais, I believe we can beat them," Hindarto said during the
farewell ceremony to pray for athletes' success in the biennial
event from Aug. 7 to Aug. 15.
Hindarto also named Malaysia as another threat.
"Malaysian athletes competed in last year's Commonwealth Games
and they aim to finish second in the 2001 Games in Kuala Lumpur,"
he said.
Neno Warisman, Liza A. Riyanto and Sawung Jabo entertained the
ceremony, which was also attended by around 250 orphans invited
by the National Sports Council (KONI) to give support to
athletes.
Earlier on Tuesday, Indonesian Taekwondo Association (TI)
chairman Suharto said he had developed a strategy to win three
golds in the Games and had encouraged athletes to strive for this
goal.
The association groomed only three senior taekwon doins --
Nico Ardiansyah (men's finweight), Andri Halim (men's
heavyweight) and Sinta Berliana Heru (women's welterweight) --
for the Games.
Fielding the juniors is a part of a strategy to prepare them
for future competitions.
New faces
Suharto said TI would field Marce Novita Latusallo instead of
Juana Wangsa Putri in the women's flyweight because Juana had to
focus on the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
"We include new faces in our team so our opponents cannot
predict our strength. They won't have any information on Marce,
because they never watched her performances. As for Juana,
everybody already knows her moves," he said, adding that Vietnam
would be the toughest rival for Indonesia.
Juana qualified for the Olympics after reaching the semifinals
in the Olympic qualification rounds in Croatia in mid-July. Three
other athletes -- Dominggus Boro, Veronica Widyarini and Satrio
Rahardani -- still have a chance at an Olympics berth at the
Asian Regional Championships in Manila in September.
Suharto also said he had asked senior taekwon doin Sinta
Berliana Heru to fight in the welterweight class instead of
heavyweight.
"The tae kwon do weight divisions have a range of 10
kilograms. If Sinta fights in heavyweight, she will have problems
overpowering her opponents, who might be a few kilograms heavier
than her. Besides, her rivals know her strategy," he said, adding
that TI aims for its athletes to win only three golds.
SEA Games training director Imron ZS said that 452 athletes
and officials would leave on Wednesday on two flights using
national carrier Garuda Indonesia.
The first contingent -- comprising 226 athletes and officials,
most of whom are women -- will fly at around 9 a.m. It will be
led by Hindarto and Imron.
The second contingent -- also comprising 226 athletes and
officials, most of them men -- will leave at around 4:20 p.m. It
will be led by deputy chef de mission Hussein Argasasmita.
The contingent will be welcomed by the embassy's culture
attache, Prio Rumanto. The flag-hoisting ceremony for Indonesia
will take place on Aug. 5. (ivy/yan)