JAKARTA, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian Sport Minister Adhyaksa Dault said
that Indonesia has no time to play the blame game for its miserable showing at
the 15th Asian Games. Instead, it must focus on bouncing back at next year's
Southeast Asian Games.
"We have failed, we were defeated and we have to take the responsibility
for this big fiasco in the Asian Games," the minister said.
"We are not looking for a scapegoat. It is urgent and importantto focus and
boost the development of priority sports so that we can reach the top three
(nations) at the upcoming SEA Games in Thailand," he said.
Indonesia finished fifth at last year's SEA Games in the Philippines. Based
on this year Asian Games medal tally, Indonesiais likely to finish sixth next
year.
Adhyaksa said a task force, comprising representatives from sports
associations, KONI and his office, would be established to oversee the national
training program.
Associations will be required submit their strategies with detailed SEA
Games targets in early January, he said.
Adhyaksa said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had told him to take
immediate measures to catapult Indonesia back into the regional top three.
Games team chef-de-mission Ahmad Sutjipto said the National Sports Council
(KONI) had set five major sports as gold medal targets.
"They are beach volleyball, badminton, karate, bowling and rowing," he
said. "We let golds slip through our fingers in the sports here, and we don't
want to make the same mistake next year."
From the five sports, only badminton and bowling contributed a gold each to
Indonesia's medal collection in Doha.
With three silvers and 15 bronzes, Indonesia was ranked at 22, far below
overall champion China with 165 golds, 88 silvers and 63bronzes.
But, sports observer Mangombar Ferdinand Siregar said Indonesiashould focus
on three Olympics events, namely athletics, swimming and gymnastics.
"These three sports are the real gold mines. Without them, we won't be able
to take home as many golds. Our mistake at the AsianGames was not sending any
athletes in those three sports," he saidin Jakarta.
Siregar said KONI should field a greener team at next year's SEA Games
and let the nation's world-class athletes focus their preparations on the
2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.