BABGOC (Jakarta) – Indonesia may yet to have a solid Triathlon team, even its core organization has only been formed recently.

But prior to the Asian Beach Games in Bali next year, the Triathlon sports will be invigorated so as to make it one of the top and reliable sports in this maritime country, said Mark Sungkar, the Chairman of the Indonesian Triathlon Organization.

The national training in each region has already started from early January and will run until August 2007 and other supporting training program will be implemented as well. Included in their agenda is on May 2, the Triathlon Organization have sent two of their trainers for one week to take a training course organized by the International Triathlon Union (ITU) in Canada. Afterwards the two trainers will be given the task of guiding and preparing the triathlon national team for ABG. But that doesn’t rule out the possibility of bringing in a foreign trainer. For next year event, the triathlon team will be strengthening by the presence of promising young athlete, Andi Johan (13), the brother of runner, Johari Johan.

Mark Sungkar said that for next year event he’s not targeting anything too lofty considering that triathlon is a relatively new sport in Indonesia and consequently in terms of achievement there is none to prove yet. So an intensified training session for the Indonesian triathlon team will definitely be implemented for next year’s competition. (sl)

(source: http://www.bali2008.com/65.html)