"Please clarify to our fellow Indonesians whether the Indonesian Red and White flag as well as the national flag of the United States were hoisted. No other national flags were hoisted as well," Indonesian Ambassador to Finland Wiwi Setyawati Firman noted in a statement received here on Friday.
Firman`s statement was delivered to counter hoax among the public in Indonesia, mostly spread through social media, that the Indonesian flag was not hoisted during the award ceremony for Zohri, who won a gold medal by clocking a time of 10.18 seconds and breaking his own national junior sprint record of 10.25 seconds.
Several Indonesian netizens accused the Indonesian Embassy of not accompanying the athlete, not to mention providing the national flag.
"The truth is that the entire ceremony was held digitally, wherein they only played the national anthem of Indonesia Raya," Ambassador Firman noted.
Secondly, Firman also countered some fake news that the embassy did not provide the national flag after Zohri had crossed the finish line. According to reports, the flag that Zohri held in a photograph along with the two US sprinters, both of them runners-up, was Polish.
"It seems that many people still think that a coach or anyone can enter the running arena to hand over a flag (to the athlete)," she remarked.
Firman explained that the fact was that entry into the running arena, including the finish line, was restricted for the coach and the athlete`s officials.
"Only the official press could access the finish line, and there were so many journalists from the United States that were on standby at the finish line. They also brought the US flags, as they were certain that their sprinters would win the championship," she noted.
The 18-year-old Indonesian sprinter Zohri won a gold medal in the 100-meter men`s sprint in the U-20 World Athletic Championship in Finland on Wednesday.
According to a press release from the national athletics association PB PASI on Thursday, Zohri finished the race in 10.18 seconds.
Zohri, whose hometown is Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara Province, beat two athletes from the United States -- Anthony Schwartz and Eric Harrison -- who finished in second and third place respectively at 10.22 seconds.
(T.A060/INE)
(T.A060/A/KR-BSR/A014)
Reporter: antara
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2018
