TI refuses to announce medal target for Asiad
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.