Rookie to don national colors at World Youth Championships

Agnes Winarti ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Mon, 07/06/2009 7:13 PM  |  Sports

Amid the country’s poor achievement in track and field, the Indonesian Athletics Association (PASI) has sent boys’ sprinter Rizki Latief to the 6th IAAF World Youth Championships in Bressanone, Italy, which takes place later this week.
 
Rizki is one of Indonesia’s only two athletes qualified for the world competition, after meeting the tournament’s time limit of 11.35 seconds in the 100-meter run. The 16-year-old runner from Tarakan, East Kalimantan, clocked his personal best of 10.98 seconds in the regional East Java Open in Sidoarjo in April and the national youth games in Jakarta in May.  
 
“His qualification is already an improvement,” PASI secretary general Tigor Tanjung told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
 
The association expects Rizki to advance to the second round.

“We realize it’s a tough challenge for him, but most importantly the tournament will give him international exposure as he is a talented and promising athlete,” Tigor said.

The July 9-12 World Youth Championships will be the first world outing for Rizki, who finished fourth in the 200m run and won a silver in the 4x100m relay in the South East Asian Junior Athletics Championships in Ho Chi Minh City last month.

Riszi departed for Italy on Sunday, accompanied by PASI official Paulus Lay. Rizki will attend a two-day master coaching clinic prior to the championships.  

The championships will feature around 1,300 athletes aged between 16 and 17 from 180 countries.
 
Another sprinter Bambang Wigianto from East Java also passed the qualification limit for the world event, but PASI opted to send him to Asian Youth Games in Singapore, which concluded Sunday

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