Women archers allowed to compete in PON

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Archery Association (Perpani) has allowed its women archers, who will be groomed for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, to perform in the 15th National Games (PON) in Surabaya in June.

Perpani deputy secretary-general Andi Suhendro said on Tuesday there would be no risk of injury to the archers when they perform in events prior to the Olympic Games, which will start in September.

He said that Hamdiah, Nurfitriyana and Lusia Elizabeth would join the centralized Olympics training preparation held by the National Sports Council (KONI) on Feb. 1.

Hamdiah is currently training in her hometown in East Kalimantan, and her teammates are being drilled here under supervision of South Korean coach Lee Jae-hyung.

"PON will also serve as one of the warm-up tournaments for the archers. They can improve their competitiveness at the national event," he said.

Andi said Lee had prepared the training program for the Olympics.

"According to the program, the archers will spend two or three months here before they leave for Bali for climatic adjustment. Bali's climate is quite like Australia's," he said.

He said Lee had also proposed that the archers train with South Korean archers for one month to sharpen skills and boost motivation.

"South Korean archers still reign in the world. But in the team event, they are below the Italian archery team," he said.

Speaking on behalf of the foreign coach for Olympic training, Andi said that Lee would continue to train the women's archers until the end of the quadrennial event.

"He has high hopes for our archers. He said he would enable our archers to perform in the Olympics. He said he didn't care about his salary, as long as he was given the chance to prove his coaching capability," Andi said.

He expected that KONI would help pay for Lee's salary during training. He said Perpani had signed a two-year contract with Lee which started in Dec. 1998 with a monthly salary of US$3,000.

"We pay him $2,000 in cash, and the remaining $1,000 in rupiah with an exchange value of Rp 5,000 to the dollar. We also provide him with accommodation and transportation," he said. (ivy)