After fulfilling its target of finishing third in the medal tally at the Southeast Asian Games in Laos, Indonesia looks forward to hosting the competition in 2011.
"Being ranked third is indeed a good result and is what we expected," said the State Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Andi Mallarangeng on Friday, after the 10-day sporting event between Southeast Asian nations was brought to a close at the Vientiane National Stadium.
The track-and-field squad won the most gold medals for Indonesia, with a total of seven gold, plus seven silver and seven bronze medals, followed by the weight lifters, who collected five gold, one silver and one bronze medal in the weight lifting arena.
Indonesia brought home a total of 43 gold, 53 silver and 74 bronze medals to finish third behind reigning champion Thailand, which collected 86 gold, 83 silver and 97 bronze medals, followed by Vietnam with 83 gold, 75 silver and 57 bronze medals.
Indonesia's gold haul was still below 62, the number of gold medals respective sports associations predicted the country would win.
However, the number three position came as a relief after strong competition from other participants, including Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore.
After trailing throughout the competition, Indonesia surpassed Malaysia and consolidated its third position on Thursday.
Malaysia remained in fourth place with 40 gold, 40 silver and 59 bronze medals, followed by the Philippines (38-35-51), Singapore (33-30-35) and Laos (33-25-52).
Myanmar (12-22-37), Cambodia (3-10-27) and Brunei (1-1-8) completed the gold-winning countries, while East Timor won three bronze medals.
Indonesia's push to third place was helped by its 11-gold medal rush on Thursday, with badminton delivering three, and pencak silat, wrestling, fin-swimming, judo, athletics, tennis volleyball and beach volleyball all winning one each.
However, some sports failed to deliver during the Games.
The boxers fell short of winning a gold, winning only three silver and six bronze medals.
The pencak silat fighters failed to retain their five-gold haul, bagging two gold, three silver and three bronze medals.
The soccer team was humiliated as they exited the group stage, making the gold medal Indonesia last won in 1991 even more elusive.
"We have a lot of work to do for 2011," Andi said. "We have to plan our strategy from talent scouting to training programs."
The 2011 SEA Games will feature 37 sports with venues scattered across four cities: Palembang, Bandung, Semarang and Jakarta.
"Hopefully the athletes can start training by January. And we have to start thinking with a new mind-set for the more prestigious events such as the Olympic Games and the Asian Games," said sporting official Rita Subowo.
Before hosting the SEA Games, athletes will compete in the 16th Asian Games to be held in Guangzhou, China, from Nov. 12-27.
Indonesian medalists in Laos will receive their bonuses worth Rp 200 million (US$21,978) for gold medals, Rp 50 million for silver and Rp 20 million for bronze medalists.
Winning coaches will also be rewarded with a Rp 50 million bonus for gold, Rp 25 million for silver and Rp 15 million for bronze.
