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Indonesia names 34 fighters for inaugural Bangkok games
The National Sports Council (KONI) has selected 34 athletes to represent Indonesia in the inaugural Asian Martial Arts Games in Bangkok, Thailand, next month
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he National Sports Council (KONI) has selected 34 athletes to represent Indonesia in the inaugural Asian Martial Arts Games in Bangkok, Thailand, next month.
The Asian Martial Art Games, which will be held between April 25 and May 3, are the latest multi-event games set up by the Olympic Council of Asia in an effort to create the opportunity for athletes to compete in various martial arts disciplines.
The games will feature nine martial arts sports: karate, taekwondo, muay, kickboxing, jujitsu, judo, kurash, wushu, and pencak silat.
Indonesia has a quota whereby it can send up to 39 athletes, but will send only 34 in five sports -- karate (7), pencak silat (6), judo (8), taekwondo (7) and wushu (6).
The athletes were picked from a three-day national selection, which ended on Sunday at the Sempaja sports stadium in East Kalimantan for karate, pencak silat, judo and wushu and Pantai Indah Kapuk, North Jakarta, for taekwondo.
"We are still mulling to include one more athlete, as one we have selected, Dudi *Baranuri*, is ... injured," secretary general of Taekwondo Indonesia (TI) Wahyu Hanggono told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
"Probably we will replace him with Risal Samsir," he said, adding that seven athletes had made up for the list. The seven athletes are made up of three men -- Basuki Nugroho, Meri Wandra, Jerred -- and four women -- Selviana AR, Eka Sahara, Catur Yuni and Nurul Fadillah.
Ngatino, the secretary general of Wushu Indonesia (WI), said they would only send six from a quota of 10 as some had other commitments.
KONI is planning for the December Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
"We are sending tigers, not sheep. In other words, we are sending those who really have the potential to snatch medals," deputy chairperson of KONI Hendardji Soepanji said at the selection meeting, Sunday.
"The Martial Arts Games is our chance to study the contenders from Southeast Asian countries, which will participate in the SEA Games in Laos *in December*," he said.
Chief of the Martial Arts national training camp Madju Dharyanto Hutapea, said there was no target for the medals to go for in Bangkok.
