TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Asian Para Games: Indonesian medalists to receive cash bonuses before closing ceremony
As of Friday, Indonesia had 123 medals comprising 33 golds, 42 silvers and 48 bronzes. Indonesia is sixth overall behind Uzbekistan.
Change Size
Victory lap: Indonesia’s Sapto Yogo Purnomo raises the red and white flag of Indonesia after winning the gold medal in the 200-meter para-athletics event at the Gelora Bung Karno sports complex in Senayan, Central Jakarta. (INAPGOC via TJPimages/Muhammad Bagas Syahputra)
A
sian Para Games medalists will receive a cash bonus from President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo at the Bogor Palace before the start of the closing ceremony on Saturday. The athletes will receive the same amount as their Asian Games counterparts.
As of Friday, Indonesia had 123 medals comprising 33 golds, 42 silvers and 48 bronzes. Indonesia is sixth overall behind Uzbekistan.
The achievement is an improvement over the country’s showing at the 2014 Para Games in Incheon, where it won nine golds, 11 silvers and 18 bronzes.
Each individual gold medalist competing in a singles event will receive Rp 1.5 billion (US$ 98,716), while in doubles the amount is set at Rp 1 billion and in team events at Rp 750 million.
Their coaches will receive between Rp 450 million and Rp 600 million each and their assistants between Rp 300 million and Rp 375 million. Silver and bronze medalists and their coaches and assistant coaches will receive between Rp 100 million and Rp 500 million.
Cash bonuses at figures similar to the amounts set for coaches and assistant coaches will also be given to guides who assisted athletes with visual impairments.
Athletes and coaches without medals will receive Rp 20 million.
Youth and Sports Minister Imam Nahrawi said the ministry had earlier earmarked Rp 204 billion for athlete bonuses. However, since the number of medals surpassed the initial target, an additional Rp 27 billion will be
distributed.
The Public Works and Housing Ministry will give houses to the medalists.
The government also plans to hire the medalists as civil servants. Those aged above 35 will be assigned to work at state-owned enterprises (SOEs), as the maximum age for civil servants is 35 according to law. SOEs, meanwhile, had no such restriction, Imam said.
Indonesia’s athletes won several medals on Friday. Blind chess player Tati Karhati won a gold medal in speed chess in the VIB1 (visually impaired) category. His match in the final against Dao Thi Le Xuan of Vietnam ended in a draw, but the tiebreaker went to Tati, as he scored six more points overall.
Later in the evening, Edy Suryanto won a gold medal in the individual VIB1 (visually impaired) category and the national team added three more golds in the men’s and women’s team categories. In total, the team has contributed the most gold medals at 11, in addition to its five silvers and six bronzes.
In cycling, top competitor Muhammad Fadli Immamudin won a gold medal in the men’s individual pursuit 4,000 meters C4 at the Jakarta International Velodrome.
Fadli clocked in at 5 minutes and 03.605 seconds to give the cycling team its first gold.
Fadli, a former racer turned para cyclist after his left leg was amputated, acknowledged that it was a challenge to earn the gold.
“I managed to come this far due to the great surroundings, great coaches, support from the Indonesian people and my family,” he said.
The badminton team also contributed a gold medal after women’s doubles pair Leani Ratri Oktila and Khalimatus Sadiyah Sukohandoko defeated Cheng Hefang and Ma Huihui of China 21-15, 21-12 in the SL3-SU5 category.
