Sea Games: Two days away from race, Cipule facilities still unfinished

Just two days before the 26th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games’ canoeing competition officially begins, construction of many supporting facilities at the hosting venue at Cipule Lake in Karawang regency, West Java, remain unfinished.

From The Jakarta Post’s observations of the venue on Wednesday afternoon, the track on Cipule Lake itself appears to be ready, but all of the supporting structures are still being installed, apart from the canoe storage facilities.

The canoeing competition manager, M. Assyidiq, said that the construction of many buildings on-site, including a secretariat office, multi-purpose building, press room, doping-control office, rowing machine facilities and a finishing-line tower were all still well on their way to completion.

“I can assure you that the lake is ready for competition. But, for the supporting facilities, I’m afraid we’ll have to make do with what we have, even if it’s not ideal,” he told the Post at the temporary secretariat’s office, located at the canoe storage facility.

“For example, if the finish tower is not ready by Friday, all measurements will be done manually,” he added.

Athletes and officials from participating countries are also questioning why construction of the venue is still in progress.

“Why is the construction so late? Is it like this at all [SEA Games] venues?” asked an official from Thailand. However, the official also said that he was fine with the situation, as long as the lake was 100 percent ready for Friday’s race.

Another official from Singapore shared his sentiment, saying, “Well, I can see that the construction is still ongoing. I hope it will all be finished by Friday. The important thing is that the lake is ready.”

Separately, during a technical meeting in Cipule Lake on Wednesday, canoeing athletes and officials from all seven participating countries agreed to exclude the elimination rounds, scheduled to be held on Thursday.

Cipule Lake has six main race tracks and one reserve track. The original plan was to divide the seven countries into two groups in the elimination rounds, but the meeting came up with the decision to use all available tracks at the lake so that all seven countries could race in just one round.

“We have decided to use the reserve tracks as an additional race track, so that all events in the canoeing race can be condensed into just one round,” said Mohammad Suryadi, a coach for the Indonesian canoeing team.

The canoeing competition at this year’s SEA Games will be held from Friday to Sunday and will feature 15 events including five 1000-meter events, three 500-meter events and seven 200-meter events. Seven countries are participating in the competition: Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam.

Suryadi said that the Indonesian team had set a target of at least four gold medals, two from the men’s 1000-meter events and two from the men’s 200-meter events.

“However, we hope to win between six and eight gold medals,” he said. (mim)