TI refuses to announce medal target for Asiad

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Indonesian Tae Kwon Do Association has three athletes in the priority list as good medal prospects for the 2002 Asian Games, but the officials have refused to so far set a medal target.

"It would be too early to predict. We will see within the next three and four months," Adrian Lumowa, the association's interim general secretary, told reporters here on Thursday.

While hinting that Koreans would undoubtedly be hot favorites, Adrian said that Indonesia might challenge in the middle and lower-weight classes.

Adrian, who acts as the associations's training director, said it would first need to evaluate its athletes' performance at the national championship, scheduled for early April.

Adrian is acting as stand-in secretary pending the formation of the new board which Adrian said is being worked out by newly reappointed chairman Suharto.

Suharto was given another term of chairmanship at an association congress in Palembang, South Sumatra, last month.

Indonesian tae kwon do athletes currently under grooming include Satriyo Rahadani, Emeralda Margaretha, Derry Darmansyah, Basuki Nugraha, Onyas Nurmala, Juana Wangsa Putri, Rosandi and Ika Dian Fitri.

The first three are among the 37 athletes put on the "priority 1" list in that they are judged to have good medal prospects, while Ika has been included in the candidate list only on the recommendation of the National Sports Council (KONI).

"KONI has recommended the athlete because Ika, as she is young, is believed to have the potential to improve," Adrian said.

Satriyo won a silver and Indonesia's lone medal in tae kwon do competition at the 1998 Games in Bangkok.

KONI announced as many as 171 athletes for the 2002 Asian Games, which will be held in Busan, South Korea, in September.

Being the first choice athletes, Satriyo, Emeralda and Derry, along with other "priority 1" compatriots, started their training last month.

Emeralda and Derry are at the moment training in Bandung, West Java, and will return to Jakarta in January when the official training for priority two athletes begins.

The two will be joined by Satriyo from South Korea where he is training, and the rest of the team.

The association has plans for the team to take part in the World Cup in Japan as a warmup event, but Adrian said that they had yet to decide which of them would take part.

Another warmup event will probably be the Asian Cup either in Jordan or Myanmar.