Solving Asian Games’ Problems in 100 Days

KOMPAS/HERU SRI KUMORO

A crane lights up the parking lot, which is under construction, at the Bung Karno Sports Stadium’s Parkir Timur Senayan area in Jakarta on Friday (4/5/2018). The lot will be able to accommodate around 1,700 cars and is equipped with solar panels that can generate 1 MW of electricity.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The 100-day countdown to the Asian Games on May 10 is expected to be the moment when the campaign to promote it goes into overdrive, both at home and overseas. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo expects that during the opening ceremony everybody should be infected by Games fever. However, amid its promotion, national athletes still await equipment and a chance to adapt to some areas that have not been completed yet.

Jokowi, during a limited meeting on the Games at the State Palace in Jakarta on Friday, emphasized the importance of promoting it not only to the people at home, but also to countries taking part in the event.

“We have to promote it with one goal in mind: to make the Asian Games a topic of discussion. We hope at the opening ceremony there will be Asian Games fever,” the President said at the meeting.

On Friday (4/5/2018), the government and the Indonesian Asian Games Organizing Committee (Inasgoc) agreed to boost promotion at home and abroad.

“For promotional activities, thank God, we had great input from the President. All ministries were invited to get involved in promoting the Games,” said Inasgoc chairman Erick Thohir after the limited meeting.

Last week, Youth and Sports Ministry secretary Gatot S Dewa Broto said the ministry and other related institutions would try to improve promotional activities.

Erick said the President had decided to have special limited meetings to discuss the preparations for the Asian Games once every two weeks. “We have had meetings with the vice president [Jusuf Kalla] once a week,” he added.

Kalla is the chairman of Inasgoc’s steering committee.

During a limited meeting at the Bogor Palace on April 18, he said the success of the Games was the success of Indonesian people. Aside from hosting a successful event, the government also expected Indonesia’s athletes to could grab some medals.

Awaiting the arena

Several arenas have not been completed yet and this puts local athletes at a disadvantage because they need to train in them to adapt to the conditions.

On Friday, National Sports Council (KONI) deputy chairman Suwarno said the incomplete arenas included the shooting range at the Jakabaring Sports Complex in Palembang; the roller skate, skateboard and wall climbing arenas in Jakabaring; the jet ski facility in Ancol, North Jakarta, and the BMX track and the horse riding course in East Jakarta.

Meanwhile, the Olympic Council of Asia said the arenas should be sterile 100 days before the Games.

“Given the current conditions, how can the athletes use the arenas? Now, at least, we hope they can be used them for trainings,” Suwarno said.

Jakabaring Sport City president director Bambang Supriyanto said construction at several arenas for beach volleyball, wall climbing, skateboard and roller skates was ongoing.

Jakabaring Skateboard Arena developer Jauhari said the construction of the bowl in the skateboard arena was almost finished. “We hope to finish construction by end of May.”

For wall climbing, he said, the only thing left to do was to install the information boards.

Regarding the athletes’ housing, Bambang said, all they needed to do was to furnish the rooms.

There are three housing areas with a capacity of 3,066 people at the Jakabaring Sports Complex. Under the existing plan, each room will accommodate three people.

Obstacles

Regarding the athletes’ preparation, KONI general chairman Tono Suratman said the only other obstacle to overcome was the limited budget to buy equipment for training or sparring sessions.

It, Tono said, also affected horse riding, which had the potential to grab a gold medal. Top athlete Larasati Gading needs a well-trained horse. However, due to the limited budget the team can only rent horses from Europe.

The problem regarding training equipment is also complicated. Most sports bodies have to buy equipment from overseas, such as paragliding, biking, rafting and weightlifting. However, most of the equipment cannot be used because they are being held up at the customs office.

“We hope the government will take a softer approach to release the equipment for the nation’s sake. We’re putting out reputation at stake by hosting the Asian Games,” Tono said.

(NTA/NDY/RAM/DRI)