Women shooters to practice abroad

JAKARTA (JP): Three of Indonesia's top women shooters are set for an overseas training stint in Brunei Darussalam in order to adjust to local conditions ahead of the 20th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.

Coach Benny Mamoto said Sarmunah, Rina Dwi Kusumaningtyas and Titin Indarwati would leave the country on Saturday for one-month intensive preparations before the biennial event.

"We want them to be able to adjust to the venue and conditions in Brunei. We also want to find shooting partners for them. The bullet price there is also one-third cheaper than in Indonesia, where it costs Rp 1,200 (US$0.18) each," he said.

Mamoto said the National Sports Council (KONI) had only set a target of two silver medals, due to a crisis-induced shortfall of funds at the Indonesian Target Shooting and Hunting Association (Perbakin).

Lack of competition at home also contributed to the plan to send the shooters abroad.

"Our athletes have been training maximally despite our financial problem. As a solution, we gave a them dry shooting session during half of the training period since May 1," Mamoto said.

Two years ago, Indonesia bagged one gold and one silver in the clay double trap event.

Separately, Ahmad Zarkasih Hamid, secretary-general of the Indonesian Taekwondo Association (TI), said the national Taekwon Doins must win in the 2000 Olympics pre-qualifying round in Croatia from July 8 to July 11.

Indonesia will send men's and women's fly Olympic division athletes, Satriyo Rahardani and Juana Wangsa Putri, and men's and women's fider Olympic division athletes, Dominggus Boro and Veronika Wedyarini.

If national Taekwon Doins fail to qualify for the Olympics in the championships, they will have one last chance in the Asia zone qualification to be held in Manila in September.(ivy)