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Gymnast Rifda secures bronze on her way to Asian Games
Rifda Irfanaluthfi (JP/Seto Wardhana)Indonesian gymnast Rifda Irfanaluthfi secured a bronze medal on floor exercise category at the 24th International Tournament Artistic Gymnastics Mikhail Voronin Cup held in Moscow
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Rifda Irfanaluthfi (JP/Seto Wardhana)
Indonesian gymnast Rifda Irfanaluthfi secured a bronze medal on floor exercise category at the 24th International Tournament Artistic Gymnastics Mikhail Voronin Cup held in Moscow. The international event has been treated as a tryout for Indonesian gymnasts as they prepare for the 2018 Asian Games.
“The result motivates me hugely. Especially when there are countries that are sending their Olympic teams to this tournament, like Russia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan,” Rifda said in a statement sent to The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
Following her success in the floor exercise event, Rifda also added that she is now practicing and perfecting her new moves for the balance beam category, where she was also assigned to compete.
Commenting on this, Rifda’s mother, Yulies Andriana, praised her daughter’s success, saying more events like this were necessary as part of her preparations for next year’s Asian Games.
More tournaments, she added, meant more experience, hopefully allowing the knowledge of the moves to become more deeply engrained so Rifda could then improve on them. She also acknowledged that competing abroad had its own benefits compared to local ones.
“My daughter can fully focus on the tournament,” she told the Post.
She said Rifda would need at least four more months practicing abroad in order to maintain and improve on her physicality and techniques.
Indonesia deployed four athletes, with three of them showing strong potential to be medalists. Rifda participated in the floor exercise category, Agus Adi Prayoko in vaulting and Dwi Samsul Arifin in still rings.
However, Agus had to settle for fourth position after slipping on his second attempt in the final round. Dwi Samsul on the still rings suffered a similar fate.
Indonesian Gymnastics Association chief Ita Yuliati said she was pleased with the results and pledged to go all out in mulling new strategies that would enable athletes to achieve their maximum potential at the upcoming Asian Games.
“We are optimistic that we can gain at least two medals from the men’s and women’s classes at the upcoming Asian Games,” she said.
The 2018 Asian Games will be held in Jakarta and Palembang from Aug. 18 to Sept. 2, drawing many officials and thousands of athletes from 45 countries.
Rifda has been among the leading Indonesian gymnasts as she had secured five medals at the Kuala Lumpur 2017 Southeast Asian Games. She won gold in the apparatus balanced beam category, as well as two silvers from women’s vaulting and balanced beam and two bronze medals from floor exercise and uneven bars.
Rifda almost lost her gold medal due to uncounted points that made the referee award the gold to a Malaysian gymnast. A protest from Rifda’s coach changed the result and the gold went her way.
