Indonesian wushu fighters are targeting at least five gold medals at the wushu competition in the 26th SEA Games at the Tennis Indoor Stadium at the Bung Karno Sports Complex in Jakarta that begins on Friday.
“At the opening day is tomorrow [Friday], we hope to win the first two gold medals up for grabs,” Indonesian Wushu chairman Supandi Kusuma said on Thursday.
A total of 100 athletes from 10 countries compete for 20 gold medals in the sanshou (fight) and taolu (art) events, which will last until Nov. 21. On Friday, two golds will be on the table for the nanquan men’s and women’s finals.
The host team is deploying eight taolu performers and six sanshou fighters that will compete in 15 categories.
Due to a late funding disbursement from the government, the Indonesian wushu squad failed to run their one-year SEA Games preparation program, which covers an eight-month-long training camp in China. They instead had a two-month-long camp starting in August at the Beijing University of Sports.
“Nonetheless, we don’t want to dwell on the past. Now, we simply hope to do our best to optimize what we have,” Indonesian Wushu deputy secretary general Iwan Kwok said.
Despite the lack of intensive training, some members of the SEA Games squad enjoyed great results at the World Championships in Turkey in October, where taolu performer Dessy Indriastuti won the silver, and compatriots Heryanto and Johannes Bie finished in the top five.
“We believe that the target of five golds is achievable, seeing our track record so far,” Iwan said.
Last year, Indonesian Ivana Ardelia Irmanto won the silver medal in women’s nanquan/nandao all-round competition at the Guangzhou Asian Games.
Two years ago at the Laos SEA Games, the wushu squad brought home two gold medals, six silvers and three bronze medals. The gold medals came from Susyana Tjhan in women’s changquan and Aldy Lukman in men’s changquan.
Indonesia will be facing tough contenders from Malaysia and Vietnam in taolu, while in sanshou, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines are the ones to watch.
Vietnam collected seven gold medals at the Laos SEA Games, while Malaysia won three golds.
