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Commentary: SEA Games reveals government failure, athletes' resilience

Complaints about the low quality of training facilities arose long before the Games kicked off but fell on deaf ears.

Dicky Christanto Wulandaru (The Jakarta Post)

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Jakarta

Tue, September 5, 2017 Published on Sep. 5, 2017 Published on 2017-09-05T09:16:30+07:00

Commentary: SEA Games reveals government failure, athletes' resilience

Going for gold: Indonesia’s Alfian Fajar and Muhammad Rian Ardianto compete against the Malaysian team during the 29th SEA Games Badminton mixed doubles tournament at the Axiata Center in Kuala Lumpur. (JP/Seto Wardhana)

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et’s not focus on how government officials are producing a barrage of excuses to cover for their failure to ensure our athletes received adequate training and peace of mind while preparing for the Southeast Asia (SEA) Games in Kuala Lumpur, which concluded last week.

These officials knew exactly what would come from the quality of their work in the lead-up to the competition. Therefore, all the sad and concerned faces do not make sense.

Complaints about the low quality of training facilities arose long before the Games kicked off but fell on deaf ears, or, if they did attract the officials’ attention, their responses were too little, too late.

Weightlifting team manager Alamsyah Widjaja, for example, filed a request for a proper gym on day one of the training camp. The government did allocate the lifters a place in Cibubur, East Java, but it looked more like a house than a training facility.