Tight selection for RI squads for Asiad

JAKARTA (JP): Only athletes from five or six sports deserve to go to the 13th Asian Games in Bangkok in December, Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs Agung Laksono said yesterday.

On a visit to the national badminton training center in Cipayung, East Jakarta, Agung said the lack of international achievements coupled with lack of funds should prod several sports organizations to reconsider their efforts to send their athletes.

"The contingent is not necessarily big in quantity, but the important things are quality and chances to win medals."

He said the deserving athletes were from badminton, karate, weightlifting, tennis and boxing. Other sports, he said, only held slim chances of bagging medals in the quadrennial sporting event.

The National Sports Council announced early this year that the country's athletes would compete in 21 sports in the hope of winning six or seven gold medals.

Indonesia only excelled in badminton at the previous Asian Games in Hiroshima, Japan, four years ago, winning all of its three gold medals in the event.

In the upcoming Asiad, Indonesia will likely rely on badminton players in its medal hunt. In May, they won a record 11th Thomas Cup men's title and reached the Uber Cup women's team championship final before losing to China.

The badminton association's deputy in charge of athlete development, Mangombar Ferdinand Siregar, told Agung that the association had drawn up a master training plan for the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

Siregar said he expected that between 20 and 24 players would qualify for the Games. The race for Olympic qualifying will start in April next year and finish 12 months later.

Siregar added that the association would shortlist between 42 and 48 shuttlers from the 63 players currently at the training center.

"If everything goes as expected, we will give the Olympics- bound players the privilege to take part in international tournaments," Siregar said. (emf)