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ou may think that badminton and weightlifting are the sports in which Indonesia will enjoy gold medal success at the 26th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, but two newly approved sports, vovinam and pétanque, may serve to change that.

Vovinam, an original martial art from Vietnam, is a new sport to Indonesia but the SEA Games squad, comprising of 18 men and nine women, will aim for six out of the 14 gold medals on offer in performance (art) and battle categories during the biennial Games.

 “We’re strong enough in performance events, because the basic movement in vovinam is similar with our pencak silat [martial art],” team manager Muhammad Siddiq told The Jakarta Post on Thursday, adding that all Indonesian vovinam athletes are former pencak silat fighters.

Siddiq said that a year after being introduced to the sport, Indonesia brought home two gold medals from performance events at the Laos Asian Indoor Games in 2009. “Last month, we achieved five gold medals, five silvers and seven bronzes in the Southeast Asian Championships in Cambodia.”

Despite this confidence, Siddiq admitted that his athletes still had problems with battle events. “They need to work on leg-grappling techniques against opponent’s neck or above, because that is most important in winning a fight.”

Siddiq referred to don chan, a group of leg-grappling techniques designed to grab the opponent by the feet or legs and take them down using twisting motions. The technique can be employed as a surprise attack. There are 21 leg-grappling techniques.

To maintain the athletes’ morale, Siddiq has arranged public appearances for his teams in high schools and malls in Jakarta.

“The public performing sessions are really crucial for the athletes’ morale because they are cheered and applauded by spectators, something they didn’t experience during the regular national training camp at Padepokan Pencak Silat Indonesia [in East Jakarta],” he explained.

The vovinam contest will begin on Nov. 14 at GOR Tanjung Priok sports hall in North Jakarta.

Another new sport to the Games, pétanque, was introduced to Indonesian athletes only five months ago, with the country yet to establish a pétanque federation. However, the eight members of the Indonesian pétanque team are optimistic that they can secure at least one gold medal out of the six on offer.

“Recently, we spent one month and a half in Thailand, the strongest country for petanque in Southeast Asia, as part of our national training camp,” said team manager Arifin Thahir.

One of his athletes in shooting event, Elsa Yuni Puspita, had shown a significant development in mastering the sport, he added.

“Elsa managed to finish in the top eight in shooting. Moreover, she and Tia Mariana beat more experienced opponents from Brunei in the women’s doubles competition at the Pan Pacific Championships in Thailand recently,” said Arifin, adding that the two athletes were from indoor volleyball backgrounds.

Pétanque originates from France. The aim is to throw metal balls as close as possible to a small wooden ball while standing inside a starting circle with both feet on the ground. The game is normally played on a hard, gravel surface but can also be played on grass, sand or other surfaces.

“Playing pétanque is all about focus and accuracy. Those skills are all our athletes need to maintain to win the game,” added Arifin.

Pétanque will begin on Nov. 12 at the Jakabaring Sports City in Palembang, South Sumatra.