Two events to decide RI Asiad shooting team

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)