"This is surely a good moment and will pave the way to grab more gold medals. Their fighting spirit is also a good example for and will trigger our athletes to achieve the same feat," Herman stated as quoted on the Ministry of Youth and Sports official website, Sunday.
The CdM also highlighted that the para-badminton athletes won the gold medal before the ASEAN Para Games officially opened.
"This also gives us a special value because we won a gold medal even before the 2023 ASEAN Para Games opening ceremony. We hope more gold medals will be achieved in the upcoming days after its first was bagged by the men's para-badminton team," he remarked.
Indonesian contingent officials, ministry representatives, and Indonesian supporters had witnessed how Indonesian para-athletes fought for national pride at the final match for the gold medal, he said.
"We saw how our para-athletes fight. In the start, they lagged behind, but with the enormous fighting spirit, they won the medal. It has been a good start and is consistent with the target; we targeted the gold medal, which we achieved now," Herman expounded.
"Hence, our para-athletes are now on fire, and we are optimistic we could achieve the 2023 ASEAN Para Games target to be the overall champion," he added.
The 268-strong Indonesian contingent for the ASEAN Para Games will compete in 12 sport branches: para-athletics, para-badminton, para-table tennis, para-swimming, weightlifting, blind judo, para-chess, sitting volleyball, CP football, boccia, wheelchair basketball, and goalball.
The Indonesian contingent is also seeking to record their third win in the games after achieving the overall champion title in the last two editions of the ASEAN Para Games in 2017 and 2022, which were hosted by Malaysia and Indonesia, respectively.
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Translator: Arindra Meodia, Nabil Ihsan
Editor: Sri Haryati
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