Blue Print to Reach the Elite Level

KOMPAS/YUNIADHI AGUNG

Residents line up to buy tickets for the Asian Festival at the Gelora Bung Karno Complex, Jakarta, Friday (31/8/2018). The Asian Festival, tickets for which are priced at Rp 10,000, has lured residents who want to feel the excitement of the 2018 Asian Games.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Indonesia should set its eyes on the global elite level of sports after its successful achievements in the 2018 Asian Games. To support this spirit of achieving global sports glory, synergy between parties should be planned out in a blue print toward Asian and global elite levels.

In athletics, for instance, a qualification system based on world rankings for athletes will be implemented in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Athletes will be required to collect points from various regional and global championships. This new policy by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) will set the 2020 Olympics apart from the 2016 one in Rio de Janeiro, which used time and distance limits. For instance, the time limit for the 100-meter sprint in the 2016 Olympics was 10.16 seconds for men and 11.32 seconds for women.

Indonesian Athletics Federation (PB PASI) has created a long-term plan for its athletes. The federation aims for some of its athletes to compete in the 2020 Olympics and for others in the 2024 Olympics in Paris. For 2020, point collections for the 10,000-meter marathon, fast walking and combination and relay events will be from Jan. 1, 2019, to June 29, 2020. Meanwhile, point collections for other events will be from July 1, 2019, to June 29, 2020.

In the 2018 Asian Games, gold medalists deserve eight points, silver medalists seven points and bronze medalists six points. Each of the ranked-fourth up to the ranked-eighth athletes are eligible for five, four, three, two and one point(s), respectively. Reflecting on this point system, Indonesian athletes will need to finish as early as possible in competitions to get higher points.

“I don’t know exactly how many points [an athlete] must collect to compete in the 2020 Olympics,” PB PASI secretary-general Tigor M. Tanjung said at the Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) Sports Complex in Senayan, Jakarta, on Friday (31/8/2018).

With the point system in place, Tigor said, PB PASI’s expenses would surely increase as it would need to send many athletes to numerous international competitions and open championships.

PB PASI has picked the Olympic events it will prepare its athletes for. This includes the women’s 100-m hurdles (Emilia Nova), men’s long jump (Sapwaturrahman), men’s 4x100m relay (Ahmad Fadlin, Lalu Muhammad Zohri, Eko Rimbawan and Bayu Kertanegara), men’s pole vault (Idan Fauzan), men’s 100-m sprint (Zohri) and men’s 200-m sprint (Bayu).

Long road

Optimism to reach the elite-level championships is also felt among Indonesian track cyclists. Despite winning no medals in the 2018 Asian Games, the cyclists successfully booked new personal records.

Indonesian national cycling team head coach Dadang Haries Poernomo said that the time limit for women’s sprint to make it to the Olympics was 32-33 minutes. In Asia-level competitions, bronze medals are won if sprinters finish in 34 seconds. The gap with the fastest record of the Indonesian national team is currently 1.453 seconds.

KOMPAS/YUNIADHI AGUNG

Residents watch the women\'s volleyball semifinal match through a screen at the Asian Festival at the Gelora Bung Karno Complex, Jakarta, Friday (31/8/2018).

In women’s sprint, the time limit to enter the Olympics is around 10 seconds. Meanwhile, Indonesian cyclist Crismonita Dwi Putri’s fastest record is 11.10 seconds.

However, Dadang said, closing this gap of 1-2 seconds would not be easy. Long and consistent training would be necessary. “We still need two or three more years just to be Asian champions,” Dadang said.

Therefore, national training camps would not cease after the Asian Games. Apart from maintaining consistency in training, cyclists would also take part in Asian championships, namely in Malaysia and Thailand, to collect points to make it to the Olympics. “Collecting points for the Olympics will begin in September this year,” Dadang said.

The hope of making it to the Olympics is also flourishing in boxing, especially after men’s bantamweight boxer Sunan Agung Amoragam, 20, and women’s lightweight 60-kilogram boxer Huswatun Hasanah, 20, won bronzes on Friday.

They had been surprising in the quarterfinal. Sunan defeated experienced Iraqi boxer Jaafar Al Sudani while Huswatun overwhelmed senior Indian boxer Pavitri, who was in the top 10 in three editions of World Championships.

“They are equal in techniques and skills. However, to reach the Olympics, [our athletes] will have to take part in trial competitions. This is the main priority,” boxing head coach Adi Swandana said.

In the future, boxers should participate in more trial championships. Prior to the Asian Games, Indonesian female boxers only took part in one trial competition in India. Meanwhile, male boxers participated in two trial competitions, namely in Ukraine and in Thailand.

National boxers should also take part in official championships held by the International Boxing Association (AIBA) to qualify for the Olympics.

In gymnastics, despite having stopped the domination of China, Japan and South Korea at the Asian Games, national gymnasts will have to improve to reach the Olympics. Indonesia’s best artistic gymnast Rifda Irfanaluthfi, who won silver in this year’s Asian Games, obtained points of 12.750 in floor and 13.287 in vault. Rifda’s points in the final, a combination of the difficulty level and her execution skills, are still far below American 2016 Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles, who got 15.966 points in the two events.

Indonesian gymnastics team manager Dian Arifin said there would still be opportunities for Rifda to catch up, as long as she got proper training ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.

After watching the trampoline gymnastics final on Thursday, Youth and Sports Minister Imam Nahrawi gave the green light for athletes to take part in more international training.

(NIC/KYR/KEL)