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or Indonesian weightlifter Eko Yuli Irawan, winning a gold medal and breaking his own record at this year’s Southeast Asian (SEA) Games is not enough.

The 22-year-old athlete, who pressed 302 kilograms in the final round of the Games, said he was looking forward to his next challenge.

“I am focusing on next year’s Olympics in London. I will try to achieve better results than in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, when I only snatched a bronze medal,” Eko said.

Achievement is no stranger to Eko, who won gold medals at the SEA Games in 2007 in Thailand and in 2009 in Laos.

It also runs in the family: His wife, Masitoh, won a weightlifting bronze in this year’s Games.

Eko first became interested in the sport when he saw some local athletes training in a club in Lampung, his hometown, when he was just 15.

Back then, Eko herded goats in the afternoon and then would watch the athletes train from behind the bushes.

When the club’s trainers found him spying on them, they welcomed him to join.

“Both of them told me to give my all and my best to weightlifting,” Eko said.

From that simple beginning, Eko has become a world-class athlete, competing — and winning — at many international events.

At the 2006 World Weightlifting Championships in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, for example, he ranked eighth. It was his first international event.

A year later, Eko snatched his first gold medal at the World Junior Weightlifting Championships in Prague, Czech Republic, when he was named the event’s best weightlifter.

Eko won two bronzes at the World Weightlifting Championships in Chiang Mai, Thailand in 2007 and a silver medal at an Asian-level championship in Kanazawa, Japan, this year.

Indonesian weightlifting team coach Lukman said that Eko had a great chance of winning a gold in London next year, as he had a good record competing against lifters from powerhouse nations such as North Korea, Turkey, and China.

Lukman said he hoped that the Indonesian Weightlifting Association (PABSSI) and the government would continue supporting athletes after the Games, especially for nutrition and training programs.

“We very much hope for full support because [the Olympics] are a world-class event. This is a matter of the nation’s pride and dignity,” he said.

Reflecting upon his medal-winning payout from the government, Eko said that he would use the cash to secure a future for his family.

“They mean the world to me and nobody can replace them. It is from them that I get all I need in life. When can I help them if not now?” (mim)