T

he newly elected Indonesian Sports Council (KONI) chairman, Tono Suratman, gave assurances on Wednesday that during his leadership until 2015, he would place great emphasis on preparing for the London Olympics, and also on the longer-term goal of athlete regeneration.

“For next year’s Olympics, our focus remains on how to qualify more athletes in our four targeted sports of swimming, weight-lifting, archery and badminton, in which we are hopeful not only in the mixed doubles but also in the men’s doubles,” said Tono during the opening of the two-day junior and youth national track and field championship, on Wednesday.

KONI is targeting as many as 50 athletes from 12 sports to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics, which will be held on July 27 to Aug. 12. Five have already qualified in weight-lifting, four in swimming and one in archery.

“By January next year, we will start the training center for the Olympics in London, the 2012 Asian Beach Games [in Haiyang, China] and the 2013 SEA Games [in Myanmar],”  said the retired army general.

KONI, said Tono, has proposed to the Youth and Sports Ministry a funding allocation worth Rp 250 billion to cover equipment, training and practice expenses for athletes registered in the training camp for the whole of 2012.

As the former chairman of the Indonesian Golden Program (Prima), Tono also emphasized his goal of enlarging the number of athletes registered in the Prima program, to accelerate the regeneration of national athletes.

“We will optimize the second-layer division of Prima for the purpose of regeneration by increasing the number of athletes in the division to three times of the current 400 athletes,” said Tono.

As part of the regeneration of track and field athletes, the Indonesian Track and Field Association (PASI) is hosting a junior and youth national championship, which includes 60 meter, 4x100 meter relay, and 1000 meter race events from Wednesday to Thursday.

Some 198 young athletes from 23 provinces will compete in the championship, which will also see some 350 students from elementary and junior high schools in Jakarta race in two special events, the 60 meters and the 8x50 meters.

PASI head of athlete development, Budhi Darma Sidi, said that the association would evaluate the results of the championships for the talent scouting program.

“We will evaluate achievements, age and posture to learn about future potential,” said Budi, who nonetheless expressed his regret over what he perceived as a lack of participation in the championships.

The national track and field athletes had collected an overall 13 gold, 12 silver and 11 bronze medals at the recently concluded SEA Games in Palembang and Jakarta.

“We must not become overjoyed with the recent SEA Games achievements, as Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines will definitely be training harder for upcoming competitions,” said PASI chairman Bob Hasan.