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Bali expects KONI to send athletes to World Games
Indonesia remains undecided about its participation in the World Games to be held Kaohsiung, Taiwan, next July
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Indonesia remains undecided about its participation in the World Games to be held Kaohsiung, Taiwan, next July.
"Considering this is an international event, we surely hope Indonesia will send our qualified athletes to the games," I Gusti Agung Gede Susila, chairman of the National Sport Council's (KONI) Bali office, said on the sidelines of the World Games promotional tour on the island on Wednesday.
The eighth quadrennial World Games will run from July 16 to 26, and will feature 31 traditional and adventure sports.
Indonesia has qualified for three of the sports - wall-climbing, tug of war and wushu - but KONI has yet to announce its intention to join.
"It takes a big sum of money to send athletes to such an event, and only KONI *central headquarters* has the authority to decide," Gede Susila at a press conference in Kuta.
The Kaohsiung Organizing Committee (KOC) is touring Bali to promote the Games, highlighted by a demonstration of wall-climbing.
The demo pitted Indonesian climber Ponti Hardiyanto against Taiwan's Jiun Jie Tzeng.
"We expect Indonesia to take part in the event," said KOC managing director Shyh Fang Lui.
The winner of the Asian Boulder Open in Singapore in 2007, Ponti, 24, said he hoped KONI would give him a chance to compete at the World Games.
"I have been preparing for the Bali sports championship, which will be held in the next couple of days," said Ponti, who finished fourth at the Asia Cup Krabi in Thailand last April.
KONI spokesman Firmansyah Gindo said the council had not yet received any proposal from any sports federations to join the games.
Besides the three sports, the World Games will include artistic sports (dance sport, gymnastics, roller sport), precision sports (field archery, billiard, boules, bowling), ball sports (korfball, softball, rugby sevens, squash, racquetball, beach handball, tchoukball), trend sports (air sport, fin swimming, flying disc, lifesaving, orienteering, water ski, dragon boat), strength (body building, powerlifting), and martial arts (jiu jitsu, karate, sumo)
