"I have told the coaches that the training should be science-based to achieve the targets that we have set," he said at the 2025 PASI Congress in Solo, Central Java, on Saturday.
Pandjaitan affirmed that in a previous meeting with his team, he highlighted the need to focus on the development of several events within athletics with a sports science approach.
Athletes in events that PASI focuses on, he said, will receive a special program that allows their training progress to be monitored based on scientific calculations.
He further said that with a scientific approach, the athletes' training progress cannot be manipulated because there is data that can prove it. Athletes' data can also be connected to artificial intelligence technology, he added.
"AI can recommend athletes with good performance," he said.
According to him, the implementation of AI-based programs is beneficial because it can track everything, even a program's flaws and inefficiencies.
He assessed that since AI-based work has started to be developed for government programs, it is also possible to be applied to athletics in the future.
During Saturday's congress, PASI reappointed Pandjaitan as its executive board chairperson for the 2025-2029 period, following his previous term from 2021-2025.
The congress was attended by representatives of regional athletic associations from 38 provinces.
As PASI will target Asian-level achievements going forward, he called for collaboration within the association, both at the central and regional levels, to achieve the goal.
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Translator: Aloysius Lewokeda, Raka Adji
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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