The futsal team of Papua, both men and women, that are prepared for National Sports Week (PON) XXI Aceh and North Sumatra 2024 are now preparing for pre-PON 2023.
The Papuan futsal coach Daud Arim says that the their current preparation is for ensuring the prime condition of his atheletes prior to pre-PON.
“Why we are doing this preparation earlier than other sports is because in PON XX 2021 we are able to get gold medals, and then there’s also pre-PON that we have to anticipate,” he said in his explanation.
According to Arim, his team have already in Training Center since January until March later where they would get intensive training in Monday and Wednesday for the men’s team and Tuesday and Thursday for the women’s team.
“In accordance to the directions of KONI Papua that five months prior to pre-PON, athletes must be ready which makes us have to prepare ourselves starting from now,” he said.
He revealed that from the result of open selections on December 2021, Arim futsal’s team already have 30 players in men’s team and 31 players in women’s team, and there will be a further selections in his team where he wants only 20 players in each team.
“Our selections will look on their skills, technique, mental strength, and physique so that they will be ready in the match,” he said.
He adds that although the 61 athletes are in Training Center, Arim still applies promotion and degradation system which will sees who are the best players among them.
“Because we are looking for the best players and defend our gold medals in PON XXI,” he adds.