Koni Camps Spread Across Indonesia
For the first time in Indonesian sports history, Jakarta is no longer the sole place for the national training camp after the National Sports Committee, or Koni, announced eight provinces were ready to host athletes before the 2009 Southeast Asian Games.
Budget constraints forced Koni to divide the camps among North and South Sumatra, Riau, East Kalimantan, Maluku, East and West Java and Jakarta.
“The representatives of regional committees of the provinces have told us they are able to facilitate the national training camp. We will start early in February,” Mulyana, the head of Koni’s athletes’ development division, said.
He said the provinces would prepare the training facilities while Koni picks up monthly stipend for the 300-plus athletes and coaches in the camps.
The committee, which has looked to the national government for support, calculated that it will need around Rp 120 billion ($10.3 million) to finance the camp. But last month the government said that it would only allocate Rp 85 billion for the training camp.
“We have discussed it with the government,” Mulyana said. “Hopefully they will help us.”
The 2009 SEA Games in Laos will feature 26 sports, and Indonesia will compete in 22 of them. Several of those sports are disciplines that have been good to Indonesia in the past, such as archery, athletics, badminton, pencak silat and weightlifting.
East Kalimantan will host the camp for shooting and five martial arts – taekwondo, wushu, pencak silat, karate and judo. It will also serve as the central camp for the inaugural Asian Martial Arts Games in Bangkok from April 25-May 3.
Jakarta will host athletics, badminton and tennis, and East Java will host archery, swimming and fin swimming. The headquarters for indoor volleyball and cycling will be in West Java.
Gymnastics, weightlifting, golf and sepak takraw will meet in Riau, and Maluku will host the boxing camp. Mulyana said the camps in North and South Sumatra have yet to be announced.
East Kalimantan governor Awang Faroek Ishak said his province looked forward to hosting the athletes.
“We’re happy to facilitate the training camp for our athletes,” Awang said. “We’re told that our shooting range in Manggar, Balikpapan, is one of the best shooting ranges in Asia.”
Indonesia also plans to send athletes to four other multi-sport events this year, including the Asian Youth Games in Singapore, Islamic Solidarity Games in Iran, Asian Indoor Games in Vietnam and Para Games in Laos.
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