Wismoyo tells public to take failure in stride
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (JP): With Indonesia's long-standing sports supremacy in the region withering following its humiliating showing at the 20th Southeast Asian Games here, National Sports Council (KONI) chairman Wismoyo Arismunandar has opted not to look for a scapegoat.
For the first time since it began participating in the biennial event in 1977, Indonesia was upstaged by Malaysia to finish a lowly third.
Two years ago in Jakarta, Indonesia claimed 177 of 440 golds at stake. This time around, Indonesia won 43 golds, 40 silvers and 56 bronzes, well off its estimate of 70 golds.
As of Saturday, Thailand reigned supreme with 62 golds, 46 silvers and 55 bronzes, while Malaysia, the next SEA Games host, collected 53 golds, 44 silvers and four bronzes.
Wismoyo told The Jakarta Post on Saturday that he would invite sports officials and representatives of sports organizations once they arrived home to review the athletes' poor performance before deciding on their next move.
"We will study the athletes' overall performance. We will evaluate whether the failure was caused by individual mistakes or because the sports organization could not prepare their athletes in a given time," he said.
"We had only three months for the training period. We want to discuss whether we should continue with this method."
Indonesia's chef de mission Mochammad Hindarto said he was ready to quit his job as the KONI's chief in charge of athletes development if that was the public's demand.
"If anybody is looking for a scapegoat for Indonesia's failure, I am ready for that," he told the Post.
Hindarto admitted that Indonesia was not well prepared for the Games compared to Malaysia which groomed their athletes for about one year. Malaysia finished first in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur.
He said he sent letters to all sports organizations beginning in February 1998 with the instruction for them to prepare their athletes for the biennial event.
"We did our duty. In Malaysia, sports organizations are autonomous, self-motivated and never depend on their National Sports Council (NOC) for training funds. NOC only coordinates the sports organizations across the nation. They should not wait for our command to start preparing their athletes," he said.
Hindarto said he heard rumors that some participating countries did everything they could to prevent Indonesia from retaining the overall medal title.
He said Indonesia needed radical improvement in track and field, swimming and other sports in which performances were based on objective evaluation, such as times.
"It's more difficult to win a competition which is more or less decided by the subjectivity of the referee. Many times there are complaints about unfair refereeing," he said. (ivy)