Women archers in 2000 Olympics

JAKARTA (JP): Senior woman archer Nurfitriyana Lantang and the women's archery team qualified for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney after the Asian Archery Championship in Beijing last week, secretary general of the Indonesian Archery Association (Perpani) Udi Harsono said on Friday.

Nurfitriyana was the second national archer to qualify for the quadrennial event after teammate Hamdiah, who qualified after succeeding to enter the women's individual quarterfinals of the 40th World Archery Tournament in Riom, France, in July.

Nurfitriyana, Hamdiah and another teammate Lusia Elizabeth, formed the team. Udi said that the team would compete in the Golden Arrow 2000 tournament in Sydney, which also served as the warm-up to the Olympics.

However, Udi said Perpani was expecting confirmation on the Olympic berths from the world archery federation (FITA).

"FITA will give confirmation in the near future, but we are sure that our archers have qualified after being informed in the Asian Archery Federation (AAF) meeting in Beijing. The meeting decided that Indonesian archers will represent Asia," Udi was quoted by Antara as saying on Friday.

He said their departure to the Olympics would be decided by the National Sports Council (KONI). (ivy)