International Climbing Athletes choose to Train in Indonesia

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Four countries such As New Zealand, Australia, China, and Cambodia, have chosen Indonesia as their main training location for bouldering or rock climbing sport following Indonesia’s bouldering athletes world achievements recently.

“New Zealand and Australia has voiced their interest to train in Indonesia, meanwhile China and Cambodia has started to train their athletes here since February,” said Secretary General of Indonesia’s federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) Sapto Hardono in Beijing, China on Tuesday.

Sapto further elaborate that the countries chose to train in Indonesia considering that the Indonesian national climbing athletes have focused their training in Yogyakarta during the past year, which has gained international recognition.

Indonesian climbing athletes had just completed the 2018 IFSC World Cup held in Russia and China where Indonesian athletes won one silver medal (Russian event) and a gold medal, one silver, and one bronze medal in the China event held on May 5-May 7.

The only gold medal won was thanks to Indonesian female climbing athlete Aries Susanti Rahayu in the speed climbing series held in Chongqing. She managed to defeat Russian athlete Elena Timofeeva by posting a time of 7.51 seconds, which defeated Elena’s best time of 9.01 seconds.

“This is an achievement that needs to be cherished. Last year we were not seen as a serious competitor at the world championship. [the international world] were surprised by our improvement [in speed bouldering],” said Sapto Hardono.

ANTARA