Indonesia Targets Overall Champion in 2018 ASEAN School Games
17 July 2018 22:42 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia is targeting the overall champion for the 2018 ASEAN School Games. A total of 204 athletes will be sent to the multi-event tournaments that will be held in Malaysia.
The athletes are released by the Minister of Youth and Sports Imam Nahrawi at Kemenpora Guesthouse, Central Jakarta, Tuesday, July 17. Imam considers this championship is very important to test Indonesian junior athletes.
“ASEAN School Game is an important foundation for the introduction of how they compete, [to see] the results of the training, the results of what they have learned by competing with other countries,” said Imam.
Indonesia has achieved runner-up at the 2017 ASEAN School Games in Singapore. This year, the government targets the young athletes to achieve the overall champion. They are targeting to achieve 26 gold from 123 medals contested.
Indonesia will compete for eight sports in 2018 ASEAN School Games. The eight games are athletics, swimming, badminton, sepak takraw, volleyball, basketball, gymnastics, and squash. Athletics became the most followed sports by Indonesian athletes, which is 29 athletes, followed by swimming with 28 athletes.
The 2018 ASEAN School Games in Malaysia will be held from July 19 to July 27. It is the 10th tournament since it was first held in 2009 in Thailand.
EGI ADYATAMA
