South Sulawesi To Send Rowers To S'pore Boat Race

Makassar, South Sulawesi, May 10 (Antara) - South Sulawesi province will send three rowers to Singapore to reinforce the Indonesian rowing team in the dragon boat race in that country on May 18-19, 2013, a rowing athlete manager said. National Training Manager of the Indonesian Rowing Athlete Association (PODASI) Young Mardinal said through the phone on Friday that the three rowers from South Sulawesi were Anwar Tarra, Ilham, and Syahrul Syaputra. The three athletes have passed the selection and will team up with the Indonesian rowers assigned to take part in the Singapore dragon boat race. He said that the Indonesian Dragon Boat team was scheduled to leave for Singapore on May 16, 2013. "Three South Sulawesi`s athletes have been selected to reinforce the Indonesian team which consists of 20 rowers who will compete in Singapore," Young said. He said that the Indonesian team to the dragon boat race would take part in two events, namely the 200m and 500m men`s and women`s events. PODSI is determined to defend Indonesia`s overall champion title it won in the 2012 competition. Young expressed confidence to achieve the target because PODSI had prepared the athletes for a long time while the condition of the Indonesian rowers in the team was relatively good. Referring to the participation of the Myanmarese rowing team in the Singapore dragon boat race, Young said that it was a threat to the Indonesian team. Myanmarese rowers also have high spirit and motivation after they were able to make achievements in SEA Games 2011. "We heard that Myanmar will be taking part in the Singapore dragon boat race. Though they will be strong rivals, we remain to be optimistic that we will maintain our general champion title. We hope our athletes will perform and show their best achievement in the race," he said. South Sulawesi rower Anwar Tarra said he and friends had prepared themselves since October 2012. He said that they were determined to perform maximally so that they would present the best achievement to the state. Chairman the Indonesian National Sports Committee (KONI) for South Sulawesi Nukhrawi Nawir said the selection of three South Sulawesi`s athletes just repeated the province`s tradition in contributing athletes to the national team. He also expected that the achievement would motivate other athletes in Sulawesi in improving their capability. Besides taking part in the Singapore dragon boat race as a tryout, the Indonesian team will also have a tryout in Malaysia in June 2013. He also expressed hope that Indonesia would not repeat its failure in SEA Games 2011 to grab a gold medal when it competed in SEA Games 2013. In the meantime, Indonesia`s kayak and cano teams will also conduct a number of tries out, including in Germany, in August 2013. The Indonesian team is also expected to take part in the world Cano championship in Uzbekistan in August 2013.