Windsurfer Oka qualifies for Olympics
JAKARTA (JP): Windsurfer Oka Sulaksana nailed down his ticket to the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney by finishing 35th in the golden fleet class of the World Championships in Noumea, New Caledonia, last week.
Oka's qualification adds to the list of Indonesian athletes who will compete in the Olympics from Sept. 15 to Oct. 1, 2000.
Indonesian Yachting and Windsurfing Association (Porlasi) secretary-general Aji Sularto said on Tuesday Indonesia finished in 11th place among the 22 countries participating in the 12-race competition which ended on Sunday.
Aji said Chinese and Japanese windsurfers also qualified for the Olympics during the competition.
"It now depends on the National Sports Council (KONI) to send Oka to Sydney. We have prepared and fought hard to enable Oka to qualify for the Olympics," he was quoted by Antara new agency as saying.
Aji was skeptical about the likelihood of Oka improving his performance in the Olympics due to the lack of financial support from Porlasi.
"We hope KONI will support Oka. There are still many circuits in Europe which can be used as warm-ups for Oka prior to the Olympics," he said.
Aji also said Porlasi could not hire world-class windsurfing coach Amith Inbar of Israel, who was scheduled to accompany Oka to Noumea, because he already coached for another country.
Oka -- the 1998 Asian Games gold medalist in the IMCO heavy division in Thailand -- is the country's best hope of finishing among the top 10 in the windsurfing competition at the Olympics.
The Bali-native finished 13th in his Olympic debut in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1996.
The windsurfing competition at the Olympics is limited to 40 athletes. Eligibility is based on performances in the World Championships in New Caledonia and the pre-Olympic competition in Sydney in February 2000, with the winners of the Asian-Pacific, Australian-Oceania, North American, South American and European zones also qualifying. The international windsurfing body will also provide five wild cards, including one for the host country.
Separately, KONI reported that 10 athletes, excluding Oka, had qualified for the Olympics. The 10 athletes are women's sprinter Irene Truitje Joseph; women's archer Hamdiah; men's swimmers Richard Sam Bera, Wisnu Wardhana, Albert Sutanto, Felix Sutanto and Akbar Nasution; women's swimmer Elsa Manora Nasution; women's diver Shenny Ratna Amelia; and women's tae kwon doin Juana Wangsa Putri.
Women's weightlifters Sri Indriyani and Winarni also qualified for the Olympics after taking silver medals at the ongoing World Championships in Athens.
National tennis player Wynne Prakusya has asked KONI to apply to the Sydney Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games for a wild card.
KONI official in charge of athlete development Mochamad Hindarto said he would consider the request.
"She is still young. She might not achieve an astonishing performance at the Olympics, but to compete in the world event could boost her motivation for the future," he said.
Hindarto also said the centralized training program for the Olympics must begin by February. However, he said the council had yet to receive the expected Rp 6.9 billion (US$985,720) from the government to fund the training. (ivy)