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outh and Sports Minister Imam Nahrawi has toned down his expectations for Indonesia'€™s participation in the upcoming Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, reasoning that many of Indonesia'€™s favorite events have been eliminated from the medal contest.

During a recent visit to Semarang, the minister said that the country'€™s athletes would be looking to regain the overall championship, which Indonesia last won in 2011. Indonesia fell to fourth place in the medal tally in Myanmar 2013.

The biennial multi-sport showcase will be held in Singapore in June.

Indonesia'€™s preparation was one of the topics discussed during a hearing at the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

'€œWe are targeting to improve our position from fourth to runner-up, even though we will still try to become overall winner, which will be quite hard because other countries have undertaken better preparation,'€ Imam told members of House Commission X overseeing youth affairs, sports, art and culture.

He said that he had to downsize the target because a number of events where Indonesian athletes were expected to excel in the medal chase had been dropped from the 28th SEA Games, slated to be held from June 5 to June 16.

The eliminated events include cycling, chess, karate, kempo, weightlifting, wrestling and beach volleyball.

Indonesia brought home five gold medals from both cycling and chess from the 2013 SEA Games in Myanmar. Kempo contributed seven gold medals, while karate and wrestling contributed two gold medals each and weightlifting got three.

Beach volleyball, which was last featured at the 26th SEA Games in Indonesia, also produced a piece of gold.

At the 27th SEA Games in Myanmar, Indonesia collected 65 gold, 84 silver and 111 bronze medals to finish fourth among 11 participating countries. '€œIn order to be runner-up we need to collect at least 72 to 79 gold medals, while for overall winner we need to obtain up to 98 gold medals,'€ Imam added.

The Singapore sport gala will see around 7,000 athletes from 11 countries vying for a total of 402 gold medals from 39 sports divisions.

'€œThe training camp has begun since January last year under the Indonesian Gold Program [Prima],'€ said Imam.

Imam also spoke on Indonesia'€™s buildup toward hosting the 2018 Asian Games, and preparations for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

In his report, Imam revealed that the ministry had prepared drafts of presidential decrees on a national committee for the Asian Games, which would be finalized in the near future, as well as a draft for goods and service procurement for the quadrennial pan-continental multi-sport event.

'€œWe hope the presidential decrees [on the Asian Games] will be finalized and issued soon, but this is a big event where all stakeholders are involved.'€

'€œWe want all the preparations for the Asian Games to go well because we all need to see Indonesia succeed in holding such big events,'€ commission head Teuku Riefky Harsya said.

For the 2016 Olympics, the minister is targeting two gold medals from badminton and weightlifting and hopes to reach the top 30 in the final standings.

In the previous Olympics in London, Indonesia finished 63rd with one silver and one bronze medal, both from weightlifting.