Martial arts coach from Central Java Rony Syaifullah said when contacted to confirm it here on Thursday said they would start training in China as of June.
However, he said, before they started training there martial arts organization officials would first conduct a survey there.
He said a total of 32 martial arts athletes would take part in the training in China. "Right now 37 athletes are undergoing training at the national training center. The number will later be reduced by five," he said.
He said China has been chosen to become the training ground because Indonesia wished to learn their method of training as kung fu is also played there. "Before the SEA Games in 2007 Indonesian martial art fighters also trained in China," he said.
Asked about the number of martial art athletes to be fielded in the SEA Games later he said the main team would consist of 24 men`s and women`s fighters.
They would participate in 18 matches including double and group events, he said.
He said as Indonesia would be the host the country`s martial art fighters must become the champion.
"We have not yet determined how many gold medals we have to win in order to become the general champion as we still have yet to see rivals` strength," he said.
He said based on the Asian martial art competition in Singapore recently Indonesia`s rival would likely come from Vietnam and Malaysia.
In the Asian championship in Singapore Indonesia won five gold and four silver medals. "We indeed did not participate in all events. We hid our fighters for six matches and so did Malaysia and Vietnam," he said.
(T.H015/Uu.H-YH/HAJM/B003)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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