Wismoyo in charge of Olympics preparations

JAKARTA (JP): Chairman of the National Sports Council (KONI) Wismoyo Arismunandar said on Friday that he would lead the team preparations for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.

Wismoyo said he would pick the director to organize and supervise the training program for the quadrennial event on Monday.

"The KONI chief will be the Olympic Games' project manager. We will elect the training director on Monday," he said, adding that training was scheduled to begin on Feb. 15.

He said the candidates for the training director include four KONI officials: Arie Sudewo (deputy chairman), Rudolf S. Warouw (secretary general), Indra Kartasasmita (chief of the foreign affairs department) and Imron Z.S. (the training center director).

"From the candidates, we will choose someone who has never led a contingent to international sports events," the retired four- star general said.

Arie said the director could also come from a sports organization.

"We are not restricting the post to KONI. There are many others apart from the four candidates who could be the training director," he said without mentioning names.

Arie said the director would have full responsibility in the training process. "The project manager will make the outline of the training program, while the training director will promote and discuss it with sports organizations as well as supervise training procedures."

Target

Arie said the council had not set a medal target but the team should improve on the one gold, one silver and two bronzes which won in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

"We hope that we can achieve more than four years ago. I won't speak of the amount of medals targeted in this event, it will be decided at the end of the training preparation."

Except for a silver medal in archery in 1988, all of Indonesia's Olympic medals have been from badminton, which made its debut at the Olympics in 1992.

Men's doubles pair Ricky Ahmad Subagja and Rexy Mainaky earned the only gold for Indonesia in 1996. Junior women's singles shuttler Mia Audina, who moved to the Netherlands last May, earned the silver while 1992 gold medalist Susi Susanti won a bronze.

Denny Kantono and Antonius Irianto contributed another bronze in the men's doubles.

With 41 athletes competing in 11 sports in Atlanta, Indonesia finished 41st in the medal standings. It was a comedown from its 25th finish in Barcelona in 1992, when Indonesian shuttlers won two golds, two silvers and a bronze.

"We hope badminton can earn more golds than it got in Atlanta. But we expect more medals from the other sports, like weightlifting and windsurfing," Arie said. (ivy)