"The government expressed its appreciation and gratitude to the PRSI for organizing the 2022 Indonesia Open Aquatic Championship that was delayed for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic," he stated while opening the event.
As part of the sports branches included within the Grand Design of National Sports (DBON), he expects that PRSI can consistently guide young athletes in order to produce swimmers capable of competing at the Olympics level.
"This is why I welcomed the information from PRSI which states that the Indonesian national team currently has a good coach. To this end, I support all programs undertaken by the PRSI," Amali added.
On the occasion, he also reminded that the promotion and degradation system is implemented within the DBON.
This means that sports branches that do not produce any achievements within a certain period of time can be replaced by other branches.
Meanwhile, Head of the 2022 IOAC Organizing Committee Ali Patiwiri noted that the fourth edition of this event will feature four aquatic disciplines.
These comprise swimming on December 12-15, water polo on December 12-16, diving on December 16-19, and artistic swimming on December 17-19.
"In addition, there is a swimming race for master on December 18, and the participants are senior swimmers starting from the age of 27 up to 85 years above," he noted.
Some 126 clubs, with 674 athletes and 185 officials, participate in the swimming competition. Six PRSI's provincial managers and four clubs with 84 athletes and 36 officials participate in the diving competition.
Meanwhile, participants in water polo are five men's teams and four women's teams, with 120 athletes and 43 officials.
Lastly, the number of participants for artistic swimming comprise 91 athletes and 37 officials from nine clubs, while 130 athletes from 17 master swimming associations in Jakarta participate in master swimming.
"Thus, the number of athletes and officials that participate in the 2022 Indonesia Open Aquatic Championship reached 1,400 people," Patiwiri noted.
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Translator: Muhammad Ramdan, Fadhli Ruhman
Editor: Sri Haryati
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