World junior weightlifting championship opened here

JAKARTA (JP): The 20th world junior weightlifting championships opened here yesterday evening, with young lifters hoping to establish a number of new records.

The event, fielding a total of 169 lifters from 46 countries on five continents, will get into full-swing today at the Senayan tennis indoor stadium.

Gothfried Sundhol, President of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF), officially declared the championships open yesterday. He said the six-day meet was regarded as one of major events regularly held by his international sport organization.

Chairman of national sports governing body (KONI) Surono, chairman of the Indonesian Weightlifting, Powerlifting and Body Building Association (PABBSI) Soesilo Soedarman, who is also Coordinating Minister for Politic and Security Affairs, and PABBSI secretary general Djoko Pramono attended the opening ceremony.

Indonesia was named the host of the annual championships during an IWF meeting held in Canada last year. The plenary meeting also decided to bring the world junior powerlifting championships to Indonesia.

Despite the strong challenge from other Eastern Europe rivals, Russian musclemen are expected to dominate the weightlifting meet. Indonesia, banking on 11 athletes, set a modest target of being included in the medal winning countries.

Both Soesilo and Djoko had expressed their guarded pessimism that Indonesian lifters could win a gold. "Foreign lifters are better than Indonesians," Soesilo admitted.

Foreign participants should have been surprised during the opening ceremony as 50 dancers who dressed in tribal costumes from Irian Jaya hoisted the IWF flag in a musical performance.

The announcer said the choreography was created by the National Marine Corps, which now has Maj. Gen. Djoko in command. Some 500 personnel of the corps were mobilized from their barracks at Cilandak, South Jakarta to join the ceremony. A corps member said he would come to see the competitions every day. (amd)