JAKARTA, KOMPAS – With only 45 days left before the 2017 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur, funding for the Gold for Indonesia (Prima) elite athlete-training program is rife with problems. Indonesian karatekas currently undergoing training in Japan and France may not be able to compete in the 14th Asian Karate-Do Championship in Astana, Kazakhstan, on July 13-16 as they are running out of funds.
Sixteen karate athletes, trainers and team managers in the kumite category have been in France for training since June 23. Meanwhile, 10 karate athletes and trainers in the kata category have been training in Japan since June 24. Both teams are scheduled to leave for Astana to participate in the Asian Karate-Do Championships. However, they may not be able to compete in Astana as the karate team is running out of funds.
Karate lead trainer for the Prima program, Philip King Galedo, explained that the team had proposed a budget of Rp 4 billion (US$299,536) for training in Japan and France and competing in Kazakhstan. On June 23, the team received Rp 200 million and decided to leave for Japan and France.
“With an additional budget of Rp 300 million from the Indonesian Karate-Do Federation [Forki], we decided to go to maintain the morale of athletes who will compete in the 2017 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur. We had hoped that the disbursement of funds would be smooth so that our lack of funding would be resolved. However, up to Tuesday (4/7/2017), fund disbursement was still problematic,” Philip said in Jakarta.
He said his team had no funds left to register karatekas in the championships in Astana. “We have been reminded by the committee as we have yet to pay for registration and accommodation in Astana. We are finding it difficult to continue training [in Japan and France],” Philip said.
Similar problems are faced by the climbing team. The team should have departed for Switzerland and France on Tuesday to participate in the tryouts for the Climbing World Championships. Team manager Pristiawan Buntoro said he would cancel the trip to the two countries if funds were not disbursed by Wednesday.
“We will not participate in the 2017 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur, but we will prepare the climbing team for the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang. We submitted a proposal to participate in the tryouts in Switzerland and France for the Prima program on May 20. However, we will not be able to depart as the list of the departing team members only arrived at the State Secretariat on July 3,” Pristiawan said.
Youth and Sports Ministry assistant deputy for sports achievement Chandra Bakti, as the commitment-making official (PPK) for the Prima program, said the ministry maintained direct communication with participating Prima teams to correct data errors and accelerate the disbursement of funds for the Prima program.
“We hope the rest of the funds for the karate program will be disbursed this week,” Chandra said.
(ROW)
