After seven days of the match, the host finally won the medal through shooter Muhammad Sejahtera Dwi Putra.
The 21-year-old young man, who is commonly called Tera, won a silver medal in the men`s 10-meter running target mixed. We thank Tera and his coach. This victory not only saved the image of Indonesia, as the host of the 2018 AG, but also ended the failure of decades of shooting.
The last time the sport won a medal was in the 1966 Asian Games, namely through the bronze medal won by runner Elias Joseph Lessy in the 10-meter air rifle.
"Finally, after so many years, through the Executive Board of the Indonesian Shooting Association (PB Perbakin), shooting sports can present medals even though this is not the best gold medal. But for me, as a team manager, this is a remarkable achievement," the Indonesian Shooting Team Manager, Sarozawato Zai, remarked.
From the beginning, the Indonesian shooting team was deliberately covering the target of the athletes who were relied on it to win medals. This is to reduce mental pressure on athletes. Each trainer is also prohibited from informing the gunman of his assistance.
Sarozawato revealed that Indonesia`s mainstay was actually on the men?s 10-meter running target and 300-meter standard male rifle. The 300-meter target turned out to be a failure, and defeats also continued on the individual 10-meter running target number. Indonesia finally won the medal in the shooting branch.
Indonesia missed its gold target in the 300-meter standard rifle. Tera, who was championed in the 10-meter running target, actually had topped the qualifying round on the first day. But on the second day, he did not qualify for the final due to his poor performance.
The defeat had a mental impact on him, and this is when the importance of the role of the coach was needed to arouse the spirit of competing athletes.
"I try to force athletes to forget their failures and focus on today`s match. I say that God has the most beautiful plan for the second day. "Focus on today, forget what happened," the Indonesian shooting coach, Masruri, pointed out.
As a result, in the mixed target running number, Tera could break into the final and reach a total of 380 points. He is four points away from the North Korean shooter, Myong Won Pak, who won the gold medal. Meanwhile, the bronze was won by Yu Gan from China, with 379 points.
Tera`s appearance looked very calm since the qualifying round. His success in winning the silver was quite surprising because his opponent was a world-class shooter, namely Myong Won Pak, who was the 2010 AG gold medalist in Ghuangzhou, China.
In stage 1 of the final, Tera`s first shot missed, and so he only won 7. However, he seemed to be able to rise and score high points up to stage 2. It is just that gold winner Myong Won Pak appeared more consistent from the start, so that he could shoot at the highest value target.
"The overall results, where points in this match only dropped 2-3 points from the results of Pelatnas training, are still within reasonable limits. "We expect the difference in points to not go far when under pressure," Masruri remarked.
Meanwhile, Tera, who was born on April 13, 1997, added that before competing, he had a health problem due to sudden vomiting. "It was not because of nervousness," he noted.
He remarked that his victory was a gift from Allah SWT (the God), and he thanked his parents for their prayers and his trainers who continued to support him. He also continued to remember the message of his parents, who were now performing the Hajj.
"My parents` message was to focus, relax, and always pray," he remarked. "After this, my target is to play at the Olympics," he noted.
Indonesia`s success in winning one medal from 20 events competed is expected to be a momentum to improve coaching in shooting sports. If Indonesia wants to be serious, shooting is a means to gain medals from the SEA Games, Asian Games, and the Olympics.
"It takes joint attention from the government, sports lovers, and the private sector as well," Zai explained.
To encourage shooting sports, the government needs to support consistent training. PB Perbakin cannot stand alone and needs government support for the implementation of National Plans from the budget side.
"We understand the limitations of the state budget. In the future, we hope that this does not stop with this Asian Games, because in 2019, there are SEA Games, and in 2020, there is Olympics," he pointed out.
Tera added that Indonesian athletes are not technically inferior to foreign players. "The training is all the same, the only difference is the flight hours, "Tera added.
Editing by Yoseph Hariyadi
Reporter: By Eliswan/Anggoro
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2018
