Writing 'can make the body healthy'

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Mon, 11/20/2006 12:15 PM | Life

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

During his student years at the Bogor Agriculture Institute, Syarif Assad struggled to get together enough money to buy brand-name athletic footwear.

That's why when a pair of shoes displayed in a store caught his attention one day, he could only hope that no one would buy them before he could.

After months of hard saving, he was relieved when the shoes were still there and he could finally afford them. But, poor Assad had not enjoyed the shoes for long when they were stolen, while he was visiting a friend.

""I was very disappointed because it had taken me a long time to get the shoes only to lose them so quickly,"" Syarif said.

Assad's sad story was among ten stories that won a prize in a writing competition with the topic 'Writing can make you healthy'. The competition was organized by PT Polyfilatex, the authorized Indonesian distributor of the Italian sports brand, FILA.

The ten stories, which were considered the most interesting tales of past sporting experience, gave the writers a reward of six-months free membership at the Club Rasuna gym.

The organizers said they received 80 entries in the competition, which was open to citizens of Jakarta and Bandung, between August and September.

""Through this competition we learned about people's sporting aspirations and experiences. We nominated the stories that were motivational and contained lessons about the value of sports,"" Polyfilatex communications manager Iman Setia Nugraha said, during the presentation of the prizes recently in Jakarta.

""The message is that we want to encourage people to keep doing sport,"" he said.

Syarif said, he sent in his story because he was wanted to share his experience. ""I think people can learn from me that hard effort will finally bear fruit,"" he said.

Among the winning stories was one about a woman who beat her concerns about being overweight by exercising before her wedding.

Lais Alam Iskandar, a student of Bandung Technology Institute, described a humorous observation in his writing.

""While I was exercising on a jogging track, I could not help wondering why many joggers took a break to devour the food offered in abundance at the food stalls around the area. Didn't the exercise become useless?"" Lais said.

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