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Sports Ministry Nixes KONI’s Push to Swell Olympics Contingent
Ami Afriatni | February 06, 2012

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Despite optimism from national sports officials, the Ministry of Youth and Sports Affairs has balked at plans to send 50 athletes to this year’s Olympics.

Indonesia has secured 11 berths for the London Games, five each in weightlifting and swimming and one in archery. Adding another 39 athletes before the qualifying period ends on May 3 is not feasible, ministry secretary Djoko Pekik said.

“The ministry thinks KONI [the National Sports Committee] should revise the target of sending 50 athletes to the Olympics,” Djoko said after meeting with House of Representatives Commission X, which oversees sports affairs, on Monday.

“Our estimation is only around 30 athletes will qualify for the Games in London. Fourteen of those will likely come from badminton, while we’ll cross our fingers that athletes from other sports can earn their berths.”

Indonesia sent 24 athletes to the 2008 Beijing Games. Eleven were in badminton and five in weightlifting, with two each in athletics, archery and swimming and one each in sailing and shooting. It won one gold medal, one silver and three bronze.

The ministry asked KONI to be more selective and pick the sports in which Indonesia had better chances to qualify, with Djoko insisting only Rp 200 billion ($22.4 million) was available for sports development this year.

Sports funding has been slashed after last year’s excesses while hosting the Southeast Asian Games. The government pledged Rp 400 billion for training camps and another Rp 150 billion to fund bonuses for medal winners.

“Several sports federations have sent us their budget proposals and those add up to Rp 100 billion. There’s no way we will spend half of the budget for the Olympics alone,” Djoko said, adding that the Asian Beach Games in Haiyang, China, in June were also a priority this year.

KONI chairman Tono Suratman said having 50 athletes at the Olympics was reasonable.

“We know this inclusion will heavily affect the budget. But if we can send more athletes to the Olympics, we’ll have a better chance to get medals,” he said.

KONI has proposed adding beach volleyball, boxing, cycling, fencing, rowing, sailing and wrestling to the Olympic training camp, which initially only included athletics, archery, badminton, swimming and weightlifting.