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Indonesian athletics faces major hurdles
The dearth of new records at the recently ended national track and field championships, where only two national records and one junior one were broken, has prompted calls for a revival of national athletics
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he dearth of new records at the recently ended national track and field championships, where only two national records and one junior one were broken, has prompted calls for a revival of national athletics.
Of the 42 events on offer throughout the three-day championships, the 20-kilometer walk was the only one to produce new records, thanks to Kristian Lumban Tobing in the men’s and Darwati in the women’s competitions.
The only new junior record came from Papua’s Franklin Ramses Burumi, 18, in the 200-meter sprint.
Kristian, from Riau, left West Kalimantan’s Indra and West Java’s Hendro in second and third, with a time of 1:27:15, to shatter the 1982 mark of 1:32:14.
Indra clocked in at 1:29:37 and Hendro at 1:31:00.
Darwati ensured the old mark only lasted six years, as she improved the 1:40:25, held by Tersiana Riwu Rohi, to 1:39:05.
Ramses chalked up a time of 21.27 seconds in the 200-meter sprint, breaking his own junior record of 21.44 set last year, when he outran Mardi Lestari’s 1986 record of 22.47.
In the prestigious men’s 100-meter sprint, Mardi’s 1989 national record of 10.20 seconds and 1987 junior record of 10.48 remained intact.
Mardi, who was present on the closing day of the championships at Madya Stadium in Jakarta, lamented the “pathetic mood” in national athletics, blaming it on the athletes’ self-contentment.
“I’m sad to see that after so long, no one is able to break my record,” said the 42-year-old, now a coach.
“When an athlete gets content prematurely, they’re less motivated to push themselves.”
Mardi won the 100 meters in three straight Southeast Asian (SEA) Games — in Kuala Lumpur (1989), Manila (1991) and Singapore (1993).
“If I’d eased back in those days, I might have only lasted two or three years,” he said.
Mardi capped his regional supremacy by becoming the only Asian sprinter to advance to the semifinals of the 100-meter sprint at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.
Paulus Lay, head of athlete development at the Indonesian Track and Field Association (PASI) and an athletics coach since 1971, concurs.
“Back in my younger days, there was a strong sense of determination in the hearts of athletes to keep striving for more,” he said.
“That attitude needs to be reinstilled. We need to create young athletes with better attitudes ... those who are ready to challenge opponents from other countries without being paralyzed by nervousness.”
PASI has sent two young runners — Fernando Lumain in the men’s 100 meters and Serafie Anelies Unani in the women’s 100 meters — to a training camp in Berlin in preparation for the IAAF World Athletics Championships from Aug. 15 to 23.
Paulus also urged more championships at the regional level to uncover budding young talents.
However, he said lack of funding would keep hindering any progress.
At last week’s championships, PASI added events for elementary school students, including boys’ and girls’ 60-meter sprints, as well as boys’ and girls’ 8x50-meter relays.
Participating students came from 32 schools in Jakarta and West Java.
“We want this competition for school kids to be a regular event,” said PASI chairman Bob Hasan.
“It’s similar to programs begun several years earlier in West Java and East Java.”
He added he was looking to duplicate the Jamaican model of athlete development, in which competitions at all levels of education are held every week.
Sponsorship, Mardi said, remained difficult to lure, with athletics still considered a less commercially lucrative venture.
