Indonesia abandons hopes for Olympic wildcards

JAKARTA, April 3 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia has abandoned hopes of receiving wildcard entries to the Olympics, now known as a tripartite invitation, as they are only allocated to countries or regions with few competing athletes.

"Our athletes will have to fight it out in qualifying arena if they wish to compete at the Olympics," General Secretary of the Indonesian Olympic Committee (KOI) Arie Ariotedjo was quoted as saying in Thursday's The Jakarta Post newspaper.

Indonesia has already secured 24 places in six sports and has been hoping for some back door spots.

However, in a letter dated March 18, which was only revealed to the media on Wednesday, the IOC said the invitation was only for participating countries with less than six competing athletes.

According to the letter, the IOC has received 1,100 wildcard requests from 158 countries and regions, but it only has 90 to give out.

The 24 Indonesian athletes will compete in badminton (14), men's weight lifting (4), archery (2), swimming (2), athletics (1)and sailing (1).

With the wildcard door all but shut, Indonesia's last chance at securing extra tickets to the Beijing Olympic rests in cycling, weightlifting and swimming, with their qualifying matches being held later this month.