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NCHEON, South Korea: The government'€™s lobbying capabilities will be put to the test in the lead-up to the 2018 Asian Games, which will be hosted in Jakarta.

'€œWe are pleased that Asian Games will be held in Indonesia, but the government must be proactive in lobbying for certain events to be included in the competition. We hope sports like weightlifting, pencak silat [martial arts] and dragon boat will be included in the list [of sports],'€ Indonesian weightlifting team coach Hadi Wihardja said on the sidelines of a Sunday competition at the Moonlight Festival Garden.

His fellow official, Wijaya Alamsyah , was less optimistic that such efforts would bear fruit. '€œIt seems unlikely,'€ he said, referring specifically to the prospects that weightlifting would be included in the list of events.

'€œDuring the 2013 SEA Games, we could have swept all 15 gold medals if it [weightlifting] was on the competition list. It was just a matter of the sports ministry'€™s lack of commitment to make a push,'€ he said.

The 2013 SEA Games, a biennial multi-sport contest among Southeast Asian countries, was cohosted by Jakarta and Palembang, South Sumatra. A sport must be supported by at least six countries to be included in the games; powerlifting has only three '€” Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia.

'€œWe should have been active in sending technical teams to other countries with the hope that they supported our proposal,'€ Wijaya said. Indonesia is known for its world-class weightlifters.

Indonesia agreed to host the 2018 Asian Games during a recent meeting of the Olympic Council of Asia'€™s General Assembly in Incheon.