Jakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesia's success to be placed in the top three in the 2021 SEA Games met the president's expectations and demonstrated the effectiveness of the National Sports Grand Design (DBON), the youth and sports minister stated.

"Indonesia's success to be placed in the top three in the SEA Games in Vietnam is due to the hard work of all parties, particularly our athletes. This has also demonstrated that our National Sports Grand Design has been on the right track," the minister, Zainudin Amali, noted in his statement on Sunday.

According to the organizer's data, Indonesia is placed third, with 69 gold medals, 91 silver medals, and 81 bronze medals. The Games' host, Vietnam, is placed first, with 205 gold medals, 125 silver medals, and 116 bronze medals, while Thailand is in second place, with 92 gold medals, 103 silver medals, and 136 bronze medals.

Apart from expressing his gratitude, the minister also thanked the Indonesian athletes for their efforts put in the games as well as the Indonesian Ambassador in Vietnam, the chef de mission team, Indonesia's NOC, Indonesia's National Sports Committee (KONI), and other stakeholders.

"When compared with the last 2019 SEA Games in the Philippines, there are differences in the number of athletes that we send now. While we sent some 800 athletes to participate in the Philippines' (SEA Games), we only sent half of the number for the games this year. Praise be to God, the medals we bagged have satisfied our expectation, and (our national team) is also in the top three," Amali remarked.

He noted that the authority will employ the same method and system to select the athletes for future international competitions, particularly for the Asian Games in Hangzhou and SEA Games in Cambodia, both in 2023.

"Our future will be more challenging. As our main goal will be the Olympics, we need to reform our national sports paradigm from now," the minister remarked.

Amali then expressed confidence that if the development of national sports continues in a positive trend, then Indonesia's contingent in the 2044 Olympics will be placed in the top five.

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Translator: Bayu Kuncahyo, Nabil Ihsan
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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