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Int'l bike competition canceled due to haze
Grey day: Thick smoke from land and forest fires blankets Lubuklinggau, South Sumatra
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Grey day: Thick smoke from land and forest fires blankets Lubuklinggau, South Sumatra. (tribunnews.com) (tribunnews.com)
Grey day: Thick smoke from land and forest fires blankets Lubuklinggau, South Sumatra. (tribunnews.com)
An international mountain bike competition, the Asia Pacific Mountain Bike Challenge (APMBC), which was set to be held in Lubuklinggau, Bengkulu, at the end of November, has been canceled due to thick smoke currently blanketing the city.
APMBC 2015 organizing committee chairman Leonardi Sohe said the international competition had been planned since 2014 and all Asia Pacific countries had been invited to attend the event. As of today, 100 athletes from 18 countries, such as Canada, Germany, India, Nepal and Spain, had registered to participate in the event.
Leonardi said that in 2013, a similar competition was held in Bukit Sulap, Lubuklinggau, and it was quite successful. But due to the ongoing haze disaster, several athletes registered for this year's competition had withdrawn their participation, he said.
Lubuklinggau regional secretary Parigan Syahrin said the cancellation of the APMBC was due to several reasons, but mainly the haze. He said participants of the event doubted that the competition could be safely held amid the haze problem that has affected the area for several months.
Parigan said with the current situation, it would be difficult for the athletes to arrive in Lubuklinggau timely as the haze had caused flight delays and cancellations almost every day due. The health impacts of the haze were also a great concern. There were worries that the athletes would not be able to compete in an area heavily blanketed with smoke.
APMBC is one of supporting activities of the Visit Lubuklinggau 2015 program being held to address concerns that Lubuklinggau has received poor attention from both national and international communities.
'As part of our efforts, we cooperated with the Indonesian Cycling Association (ISSI) and proposed a request permit to the Asian Cycling Federation to hold APMBC 2015 in Lubuklinggau so that the city could attract the world's attention,' said Parigan.
The National Disaster Management Body (BNPB) said on Sunday smoke that had seriously affected many parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan, disrupting transportation and causing health problems in the area, and had now started to spread to Java.
'Based on results of the Himawari satellite, the thin haze has started to cover the air above the Java Sea and is now heading to Jakarta,' the head of BNPB's information data center Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said on Sunday as reported by tempo.co.
In Bandung, airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II had to delay flights from Husein Sastranegara Airport on Sunday as visibility dropped to 3,000 meters from the safe condition of 3,900 m.
Angkasa Pura II spokesman Mabruri said that until 11 a.m., the airport authority had to delay five flights from Husein Sastranegara Airport, while six planes scheduled to land in the airport were redirected to Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Tangerang, Banten. (ags/ebf)
