TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Olympic Committee (KOI) Chairman Raja Sapti Oktohari, said that the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is causing the cancellation of global sporting competitions, which include events taking place in Indonesia.

According to Oktohari, who is also the chairman of the Indonesian Cycling Federation (ISSI), stakeholders are facing difficulties in determining the schedules of Indonesian sporting event plans, which include participation in the Tokyo Olympics next year.

"We are currently focused on mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic. We understand that the Olympics' postponement has caused sporting agendas in 2021 to bottleneck. We must coordinate closely with the Indonesian Youth and Sports Ministry [Kemenpora] in terms of budgeting," said Oktohari in a video conference on Monday, March 30, 2020.

Oktohari asserted that KOI is currently unable to provide a definitive answer regarding the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on a global scale but assured that scheduling is one of the difficulties as the country had only entered its initial pandemic phase.

The 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics has officially been pushed back to July of 2021, which is one of the busiest sporting years for Indonesia according to Oktohari. He said that Indonesia plans to participate in other events next year such as the Asian Youth Games, Asia Winter Games, Islamic Solidarity Games, and the SEA Games in Vietnam.

IRSYAN HASYIM