Asian Games: Officials ‘Satisfied’ With Indonesia's Asian Games Showing

Image by TeHa' via Flickr

Guangzhou, China. After bittersweet results in badminton, a surprise showing in dragon boat racing and near misses in a number of the country’s strongest events, the chief of Indonesia’s team said he was “satisfied” with the results of the Asian Games.

Indonesia remained at 13th place overall in the medal table with four golds, nine silvers and 13 bronzes. That is a major improvement on the country’s performance at the 2006 Games in Qatar, where it had a 2-4-14 medal haul.

The 13th bronze came on Friday, after the sepak takraw (foot volleyball) pair of Husni Uba and Yudi Purnomo lost 2-0 to Lee Gyu-nam and Lee Jun-ho of South Korea in the men’s doubles semifinal.

Indonesia has a shot at winning two more medals on Saturday, the last day of competition, as Yahuza and Hong Kong Marathon winner Triyaningsih run in the men’s and women’s marathons, respectively.

The country’s biggest reason to celebrate came from the dragon boat team. The men’s squad swept the 250-meter, 500m and 1,000m races to end up in the history books by becoming the first Indonesian group or individual to win three gold medals in one Asiad.

The achievement was even more remarkable because the National Sports Committee did not initially see the team as having medal potential and hesitated at the cost of sending the 22 men’s rowers to China.

Gold medal expectations rested mostly with the badminton team, and yet the shuttlers were staring at a shutout until Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan won the men’s doubles. Taufik Hidayat was considered a shoo-in, but the two-time defending champion was felled in the quarterfinals.

Indonesia could easily have had a higher tally of golds if not for some disappointing results in key events.

There were athletes who “performed below par,” said Tono Suratman, Indonesia’s chef de mission. “Several failed to meet the target we had set for them, but others stepped up to fill the void.”

“But the most important thing is everyone did their best. We met our gold expectations, and we’ve done better than in Doha 2006. We’re satisfied with that.”

The women’s bowling team, with three of Asia’s top five competitors, managed only a silver, while the weightlifters couldn’t replicate their Olympic success.