"Until now, the seven countries have confirmed their participation in the trial, among others Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and Thailand," match arena manager of weightlifting category of the 2018 Asian Games Alamsyah said here on Monday.
Alamsyah remarked that Indonesia`s main challenge in organizing the 2018 Asian Games tryout in February was the Chinese New Year holiday.
"The weightlifting agenda is February 11-17, but we change to February 11-14 considering the Chinese New Year holiday. The participants and international technical committees from other countries could return to their countries and celebrate the Lunar New Year," Alamsyah said.
He expressed doubts that the participants would deploy major athletes in February as the championship was not the official agenda of international weightlifting category.
Meanwhile, the weightlifting category faced the challenge regarding the equipment for the tryout. The equipments will come in April or two months after the championship.
"We have to rent other equipment. We will propose equipment that has been used in the 2016 National Games (PON) as it was still eligible to be used in the international championship," Alamsyah remarked.
He stated that the Jakarta International Expo Kemayoran could be used as a weightlifting championship arena.
In addition to weightlifting, Indonesia will also hold a trial tournament for eight sports: athletics, basketball, volleyball, archery, martial arts, football, taekwondo, and boxing.
The Indonesian Asian Games Organizing Committee (INASGOC) will continue to sell the broadcasting rights for a test event prior to the opening of the 18th Asian Games 2018.
A series of test events will be held at the Gelora Bung Karno sports complex from Feb 10 to 24, 2018.
"The trial tournament has nine sports events, namely weightlifting, athletics, basketball, volleyball, archery, martial arts, football, taekwondo, and boxing. However, the committee offers four sports events to the prospective holder of the Asian Games broadcasting rights," broadcasting director of the Indonesian Asian Games Organizing Committee (INASGOC), Linda Wahyudi, stated here on Wednesday.
The four sports events are football, volleyball, basketball, and martial arts.
(UU.A063/A/KR-BSR/A014)
Reporter: antara
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2018
