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)