Yogya hosts ASEAN tae kwon do tournament

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Seven countries, including Indonesia, will participate in the 7th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) tae kwon do Championship on Dec. 11 and 12 in Yogyakarta.

The Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and Cambodia have confirmed that they would send their teams to the two-day competition, which would have 16 weight classes in the open division and 20 classes for juniors.

Yoyok Suryadi, an official of the organizing committee from the Central Java chapter of tae kwon do Indonesia (TI), said Yogyakarta was enthusiastic about becoming the first outside Jakarta ever to host the international senior competition.

"We've held international competitions before, but mainly at junior levels such as the Indonesia Open last year," Yoyok told reporters here on Monday.

He added that the participant countries, especially the Philippines -- the host of the next 2005 South East Asia (SEA) Games -- were very eager to send their best teams to the event to try out their athletes in an international event.

Indonesia will have three teams competing.

"We will send two senior teams -- which consist of athletes from the Indonesia Awakens (IA) program and from the winners of the National Games (PON) held in Palembang in August, while the third team will comprise junior athletes," Yoyok said.

The Yogyakarta competition will serve as the qualifying event for Indonesian athletes ahead of the 2005 SEA Games. Through the competition, TI is also expected to map out the region's tae kwon do strength, necessary for its medal target in Philippines.