Two events to decide RI Asiad shooting team

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia will select its representatives for the 13th Asian Games shooting competition after two overseas outings, national coach Glenn Clifton Apfel has announced.

Apfel said Friday that the Indonesian Shooting and Hunting Association (Perbakin) had picked the World Championships next month in Brunei and an Asian Games warmup in Bangkok in August to sort out the team.

The association is at present grooming five female double trap specialists -- all of them Armed Forces members -- for the Asiad in the Army-owned Cilodong shooting range in West Java .

Only three of them will don the national colors in the quadrennial sporting festival, to be held in Bangkok in December.

"We will compete only in the double trap because we have fared better in that event compared to other categories so far," he said. "Besides, only China is regularly hard to beat."

Brimming with confidence, Apfel predicted that his squad would finish at least third in the Asian Games.

But another Perbakin executive and former national top markswoman, Lely Sampurno, said the Indonesian trio could win more than just a bronze. There will be 22 gold medals up for grabs in the Asiad shooting competition.

"Their performances are now on a high. Unfortunately, they lack international tests due to the country's crisis-stricken economy," she said.

Indonesia won 11 out of the 42 shooting golds on offer in the 19th SEA Games in October last year, a contrasting achievement compared to the two golds it won at the previous Games in Chiang Mai, Thailand in 1995.

Limited funds have forced the shooting body to cancel a number of outings for the Asian Games team.

The association reportedly spends between Rp 1.5 billion (US$187,000) and Rp 2 billion every year, with most of the funds allocated for imported basic training equipment.

The price of a bullet has doubled to Rp 2,500 after the rupiah's free-fall against the U.S. dollar.

Lily said that to make up for the shooters' absence from international tournaments, the shooting body planned to send the squad to the Anniversary Cup in June and the Kapolri Cup the following month.

"The two tournaments are routinely held, but we'll raise the level of their quality a little bit to fit with our ace shooters," she said.

She added that foreign shooters would also be invited to spar with the Asian Games team. (emf)