TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A series of chaos have tainted the image of the ongoing 19th National Games in West Java.
The mess in the quadrennial event has ruined sportsmanship and trampled athlete development.
There are a series of chaos in a number of events.
In the Semi Final of the water polo, the West Java team and the South Sumatera team were involved in a fight at the center of the pool.
The fight later involved the Jakarta team, who were watching from the side of the arena.
Instead of calming the situation, the apparatus wearing army attire and the police were instead involved in the fight.
The brawl also happened between supporters of West Java soccer tram and Jakarta soccer team.
Foul play was also reported.
In the horseracing event, nine provinces accused the host of tampering with the regulation to get a wild card— competing without selection—also of placing horses of other teams in a cage with zinc roof, causing the horses to suffer from overheating.
Di cabang judo dan karate, the referees were also accused of to favoring the West Java team.
The ambition to win by ignoring sportsmanship even happened before the Games were held: hijacking athletes from other provinces.
With the lures of high bonuses, a number of provinces asked the athletes to move to other regions and compete on their behalf.
Instead of optimizing the training of their local athletes, a number of provinces took a short cut to win medals.
When then the Games are underway, the fight over athletes are still going on.
For example, the case of karate athlete Imam Tauhid Raganda and wall climbing athlete Tony Mamiri.
West Java claimed the two athletes as athletes from their tram. Central Java then filed a protest and claimed the contrary.
The chaos got heated after the Council of Judges of the 19th National Games issued two contradictory decisions: the first decision that wins the claim of West Java, while the second decision favors Central Java.
A series of those embarrassing incidents would not have happened if the regional governments realized that the Games is more than just winning or losing.
There’s a more important thing than medals: sportsmanship.
The host should not do anything possible to become an overall winner The committee should have provided fair referees as well.
For example, a referee that leads a match should come from a neautral province.
The root of the problem actually lies in the development.
The Indonesian Sport Council (KONO), which realizes this problem, has launched the Grand Strategy of the National Achievement Development for the period of 2014-2024.
The concept that was also formulate by the Government and academicians states that national sport development needs a long-term and planned development.
The keys are on development of prospective athletes, tiered competition, as well as the application of science and technology in the development of sports.
The strategy that is formulated in a book has been distributed to the regions.
Now, what’s left to do is the serious implementation so we can have good and sportive talents who will play in next National Games and higher competitions such as SEA Games, Asian Games, and the Olympics.
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