T

he Youth and Sports Ministry announced the distribution of cash bonuses to Indonesians who won medals at the 28th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Singapore.

The bonuses amounted to a total of Rp 34 billion (US$2.6 million) for 371 athletes and 47 coaches from
31 sports.

The Indonesian contingent finished fifth out of 11 participating nations with a total of 182 medals comprising 47 gold, 61 silver and 74 bronze.

Gold medalists each received Rp 200 million, silver medalists Rp 50 million and bronze medalists Rp 30 million. For team events, athletes received Rp 100 million per person for gold, Rp 25 million for silver and Rp 15 million for bronze.

'€œThis is just a small token of appreciation to our hard-working athletes who have fought for the nation at the biennial multi-sport event,'€ Minister Imam Nahrawi told the audience during the award ceremony at the minister'€™s office in Senayan, central Jakarta, on Thursday.

He expressed hopes that the award could motivate the athletes further to achieve better performance on international stages.

The bonuses were awarded ceremoniously to the double-gold medalists, runner Triyaningsih, wushu athlete Lindswell Kwok and water skier Febrianto.

Triyaningsih won gold in the women'€™s 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter athletic events, Lindswell won in the women'€™s taijiquan and taijijian events, while Febrianto did the honor in the tricks and overall events of water skiing.

Representing all the winning coaches, their bonuses were handed to Maria Paula of the judo team, which brought home four gold, one silver and two bronze medals, as well as to Sunarno of pencak silat and Eni Nuraunu of athletics.

The pencak silat team bagged three gold, three silver and five bronze medals, while the athletics team returned home from Singapore with seven gold, four silver and four bronze medals.

Lindswell said that she would donate her Rp 400 million in bonuses to her childhood wushu gym, Yayasan Kusuma Wushu Indonesia in Medan, North Sumatra.

Triyaningsih said that she had yet to decide what to do with the money. '€œI'€™ll just save it. Maybe I will invest it later on,'€ she said.

Indonesia was the overall winner when hosting the event in 2011. However, the Singapore SEA Games marked another lackluster challenge against regional rivals after Indonesia had also finished in fifth place two years before in Myanmar.

Thailand retained the championship status as the winner of most gold medals, followed by host Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia.