Wed, April 01, 2009
JAKARTA, April 1 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia planned to send 34 athletes to compete at the Asian Martial Arts Games in Bangkok, Thailand next month, a paper reported here Wednesday.
The games, which will be held between April 25 and May 3, are the latest multi-event games set up by the Olympic Council of Asiain an effort to create the opportunity for athletes to compete in various martial arts disciplines.
The games will feature nine martial arts sports: karate, taekwondo, muay, kickboxing, jujitsu, judo, kurash, wushu, and pencak silat.
The Indonesian atheletes will compete in five sports, including karate, pencak silat (Indonesian traditional self depebnse), judo, taekwondo and wushu.
Indonesia has a quota whereby it can send up to 39 athletes.
"We are still mulling to include one more athlete, as one we have selected, Dudi *Baranuri*, is ... injured," secretary general of Taekwondo Indonesia (TI) Wahyu Hanggono was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying.
The National Sports Council (KONI) is planning for the December Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
"The Martial Arts Games is our chance to study the contenders from Southeast Asian countries, which will participate in the SEA Games in Laos in December," deputy chairperson of KONI Hendardji Soepanji said.
