Yachtsmen first athletes to depart for Busan

Musthofid The Jakarta Post Jakarta

Members of the yachting team will be the first of Indonesia's contingent to leave for Busan, South Korea, for the 2002 Asian Games, according to a contingent official.

The yacht team, which comprises athletes Oka Sulaksana, Fadly Faisal Yusuf and team manager Gurhadi Kartasasmita, will depart on Saturday.

"They need to get to the venue as early as possible to adapt to the local climate," IGK Manila, who is in charge for general affairs, said here on Wednesday.

Manila said that the yacht team would also need to get used to the coaching style of Bruce Kendall. The New Zealander will give the athletes final pointers a few days before they compete.

Oka contributed one of the six gold medals Indonesia won at the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok.

The Indonesian sporting delegation to Busan is made up of 100 athletes and 60 officials. The athletes will feature in 20 of the 38 sports included in the two-week competition by the Busan Asian Games Organizing Committee (BAGOC).

The need to allow ample time for acclimatization will also push the cycling and archery contenders to camp earlier. With a total of 26 members, the squads are scheduled to fly on Sept. 16.

Led by Manila, the teams will stay at the athletes' village located in Banyeo-dong Haeundae-gu, Busan. The village is made up of 20 buildings, each between 16 and 25 floors, with capacity to accommodate 14,000 people.

The largest batch of the Indonesian contingent will fly on Sept. 22, led by chef de mission Rudolf Warouw, who is the secretary general of the National Sports Council (KONI).

The last members of the contingent, according to Manila, will be those from tennis and badminton. They are scheduled to depart on Sept. 28, just one day before the official opening of the games.

However, tennis aces Angelique Widjaja and Wynne Prakusya may not be able to leave as scheduled depending on how they make progress in their participation at the Wismilak international tennis tournament in Bali.

The US$225,000 tournament, where Angelique will defend the women's singles title she won last year, will run from Sept. 23 to 28.

The 14th Asian Games will be participated in by 42 Asian countries. Thirty-eight sports with an overall 418 events will be contested at the games.