Jakarta (ANTARA) - Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports Taufik Hidayat has asked for a review of the plan to send 1,110 athletes and 440 coaches to the 2025 SEA Games.

"Do we have a strong budget to send (athletes) in such large numbers, both for their departure and to win gold medals?," the deputy minister said, here on Tuesday.

He made the statement in response to a report submitted in a meeting with the Review Team Leader Yunyun Yudiana and its members regarding the preparation of Indonesian athletes for the 2025 SEA Games.

The deputy explained that Indonesia had never sent more than a thousand athletes to the SEA Games, except when Indonesia acted as host.

Hidayat wants the number of contingents to not be too large so the review team needs to re-ensure the resources to support a sufficiently large number of contingents.

The deputy minister also emphasized the importance of making the right and efficient decisions in sending athletes to the largest multi-sport event in Southeast Asia because the remaining time for preparation is only about two months.

He wants the sports branches to be included to be strictly selected by considering medal potential and the effectiveness of the number of athletes.

"We have to choose the best option from the various schemes available," he said.

Meanwhile, Review Team Leader Yunyun Yudiana reported that his team had conducted a review of 52 sports that were projected to appear at the 2025 SEA Games in Thailand in December.

He said the synergy between the review team and the sports branches was also going quite well to strengthen Indonesia's position at the SEA Games.

Yudiana added that his team has also directed sports branches to implement strict selection so that the athletes sent have a chance to win medals, not only at the SEA Games, but also at the Asian Games and the Olympics.

"We hope the 2025 event will be a starting point for us to move further to the Asian and global levels," he said.

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