Stepping-Stone to 2020

KOMPAS/HENDRA A SETYAWAN

Members of the Indonesian rock climbing team 2 (right to left), Muhammad Hinayah, Rindi Sufriyanto and Abu Dzar Yulianto, celebrate their winning of the gold in the men’s speed final of the 2018 Asian Games in the Rock Climbing Arena, Jakabaring, Palembang, South Sumatra, Monday (27/8/2018). Indonesia\'s team 1 members (left to right), Sabri, Aspar, and Muhammad Fajar Alfian, won the silver medal. China won bronze.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Indonesian athletes have surpassed the target of winning 20 Asian Games gold medals, having clinched 22 golds by Monday (27/8/2018). This new Asiad gold record should serve as a stepping-stone towards the more prestigious international multi-sport event: the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Another gold is already in Indonesia’s hands on Tuesday, when the country will witness an all-Indonesian men’s doubles badminton final, with Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo-Marcus Fernaldi Gideon facing Fajar Alfian-Muhammad Rian Ardianto at the Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) Stadium in Jakarta.

Shuttler Jonatan “Jojo” Christie also has a large chance at winning gold in the men’s singles final, where he will face Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien-chen. Jojo has won all four meetings with Chou.

“This has been an extraordinary achievement, surpassing our 1962 glory,” Youth and Sports Minister Imam Nahrawi said on Monday, referring to the 11 gold medals Indonesian athletes won at the last Games the country hosted. “Nevertheless, there are still many days to go and we will keep on winning gold with our blood and tears. Of no less importance, we have also clinch gold medals in Olympic sports. The athletes must be fully appreciated.”

Indonesia has won most of its gold medals in non-Olympic sports, including pencak silat, Jet Ski, downhill cycling, paragliding and wushu. By Monday, it had won three golds in Olympic sports, in the weightlifting 62-kilogram class, the rowing LM8+ and the tennis mixed doubles. The gold it won in the men’s karate kumite 60 kg is not included, as only the 67 kg, 75 kg and 75+ kg classes will compete in the 2020 Olympics.

Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) sports expert Tommy Apriantono said on Monday that Indonesia’s medal wins in non-Olympic sports at the 2018 Asiad were in line with expectations. Many sports were not medal events in previous Asian Games.

“This achievement should not be like the 2011 Southeast Asian [SEA] Games. We hosted [the SEA Games] and emerged the overall champion then. However, in the next SEA Games, which we did not host, our medal tally plummeted because the sports in which we won many medals were not contested,” he said.

Olympics priority

With regard to the Indonesian athletes’ performance in Olympic sports, minister Nahrawi said he hoped the Asiad achievements could be used as a stepping-stone to even greater achievements. “The struggle does not end here. We still have the [Tokyo] Olympics and the [2019] SEA Games to look to,” he said, adding that the SEA Games should be the next stepping-stone.

The ministry’s sports achievement deputy, Mulyana, said he was overjoyed with the athletes’ improved achievements in Olympic sports. He pointed to athletes Emilia Nova and Sapwaturrahman who won a silver medal in women’s 100-meter hurdles and a bronze in men’s long jump, respectively. Mulyana said that Emilia and Sapwaturrahman might participate in the 2020 Olympics.

Apart from athletics, other Olympic sports such as weightlifting, gymnastics, sport climbing and shooting would be prioritized ahead of the 2020 Olympics. “We have started our priority programs for sports [in which we excelled]. After [the Asian Games], we will focus on the Olympics,” he said.

The government would focus on certain disciplines in the priority sports. Mulyana said that the government would increase its budget for international trial competitions in the priority sports of the Tokyo Olympics. “We have limited [funding] from the state budget, so we will secure funding from private companies,” he said.

Funding is critical to sports performance. Gymnastics, for instance, in which Indonesia won its first Asian Games silver and bronze this year, had to cut wide corners ahead of the Asiad with a national training camp (pelatnas) budget of only Rp 7 billion (US$480,017). This is much lower than the ideal Rp 25 billion budget for rhythmic and artistic gymnastics.

Gymnastics manager Dian Arifin is planning to take silver medalist Rifda Irfanaluthfi to the Tokyo Olympics. To do so, Rifda must participate in two world championships at Doha in 2018 and in Stuttgart in 2019. Rifda will also need to earn points in International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) world championships, which are held 14 times in a single year.

(JON/DNA/KEL/DEN/KYR/OKI)