"Indonesia has a chance to win gold medals in 20 branches of sports. The calculation however is still very dynamic, and we will continue to monitor the development," the chief of the Executing Body for the implementation of Gold Medal Winning Program (Satlak Prima), Achmad Soetjipto, noted.
He did not disclose the 20 games in which the country is expecting to win gold medals, pending the results of the competitions at the upcoming Southeast Asian Games.
"Indonesia must be able to overcome Southeast Asian countries that are generally ranked from 5th to 10th in the Asian Games in order to be successful in the Asian Games. Hence, we must minimally be able to collect around 16 out of the total gold medals," he stated.
Soetjipto noted that Satlak Prima would make the projections based on the performance of athletes in their respective sport branches in the past years.
"We will continue monitoring their performances, including their win-lose ratio in the past years. We will also review their latest conditions with regard to their physical, technical, and mental conditions," he revealed.
Satlak Prima would also check the history of health and injuries of the athletes as well as rivalry map in each sport branch where the countrys athletes have the potential to win gold medals.
Soetjipto remarked that sports branches that would be scrapped for the 2018 Asian Games would be the ones that competed in the Olympic Games or among the three that have been proposed by Indonesia to the Asian Olympic Council.
"We have proposed bridge, paragliding, and jet skiing. It is impossible for Olympic Games sport branches to be scrapped, because it is the mandate of the International Olympic Committee," he pointed out.
Soetjipto predicted that non-Olympic sport branches, outside the ones proposed by Indonesia, must be the ones to be scrapped for Indonesia, as the host, to be able to reduce the budget.
"Whether the number of sports branches to be competed at the Asian Games would be 36, 37, or 38, it would be discussed at the Indonesia Asian Games 2018 Organizing Committee meeting, to be chaired by Vice President Jusuf Kalla as chairman of the Asian Games 2018 Steering Committee, on March 25," he revealed.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2017
