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ATARAM: Tono Suratman, the chef de mission of the Indonesian contingent to the latest SEA Games, was elected on Friday as the new chair of the Indonesian Sports Council (KONI) in an extraordinary meeting held in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara.

The former army general who is also the chief of the Indonesia Gold Program (Prima) national sports development program, collected 54 votes from a total 82 ballots cast, outclassing Indonesian Karate-Do Association (Forki) chief Hendardji Supandji’s 20 votes and former KONI secretary general Djati Waluyo’s six.

Tono said he would focus on settling KONI officials as well as preparing athletes who qualified for the 2012 Olympics in London in sports such as weightlifting, badminton, swimming and archery.

“We will do our best to maintain the gold medal tradition. The SEA Games achievement was our stepping stone in fixing Indonesia’s reputation in Asia, but we have to be realistic that it will be hard for us to compete in Asia due to our lack of youth development,” he said after the congress as quoted by Antara news agency.

Tono promised to support sports schools around the nation to develop Indonesian sports.

Regarding his current position as Prima chief, Tono said he would resign soon.

Former KONI chairperson Rita Subowo hopes that Tono can maintain his good relations with all sports federations and regional sports councils nationwide to improve Indonesian sports.

“The closest target, of course, is the Olympics. Hopefully, we can maintain our golden achievement,” she said.