T

he International Olympic Committee has allowed four additional Indonesian athletes — all cyclists — to compete at the upcoming Youth Olympic Games in Singapore scheduled for Aug. 14-16.

The move, which invited one female athlete and three male athletes, was prompted by the success of Indonesan cyclists at a pre-Youth Olympic event in Singapore in May. In the event, Indonesia’a Elga Kharisma finished first and Welhelmina in third in the cross-country category.

“They actually qualified a few month ago but the administrative process took some time — we just received a letter form the IOC yesterday and we are prepared to send the names of our athletes to the IOC because registration closes today [Thursday],” said Indonesian national training chief Djoko Pramono.

However, Welhelmina was not young enough to be eligible to compete at the Games, which is for athletes between 14 and 18.

Elga will compete in the cross country and BMX categories and Ongky Setiawan in the individual event. Destrin Satria, Ongky Setiawan and Suherman will also compete at the Games.

Indonesia had previously been set a quota of 10 youth athletes for the inaugural Games. Two badminton players and two weightlifters qualified for the Games and three athletes were given wild cards by the IOC.

However, Djoko said he was disappointed that more did not qualify. “Thailand’s athletes won at least 30 spots at the Games,” he said, adding that Indonesia would do better if it had better training programs for junior athletes.

“Why don’t we focus on junior athletes? If we groom those aged 12 or 13 now, they will become potential athletes for the 2016 Olympics Games in Rio de Janeiro,” he said.

Vice chairman of the ISSI Sof-yan Ruzian said the extra quota was a blessing in disguise for the union and the country because the selected athletes had not been able to compete in the qualifiers for the Games due to a lack of funding.

“We are really grateful that we are able to participate at the Games. We will try our best but we also realize that this is a big event. We will use it as a measuring stick to for bigger world events. It’s already an achievement that we have been able to qualify for the Games,” Sofyan said.