T

he Indonesian weightlifting team ended its 2018 Asian Games journey with a new record as it finally won a gold medal in the continent’s biggest multisport event.

On the last day of the weightlifting event at the Games on Monday, the country’s last lifter, Nurul Akmal, who competed in the women’s +75 kilograms, failed to add the medal collection as she finished in last place.

Weighing 110.60 kg, Nurul was the second-lightest lifter of six competing in the category. She actually started the competition well by finishing all three of her snatch lifts.

However, she failed to repeat the success in the clean and jerk as she was only able to lift the bar in her first attempt and failed to lift the other two. She scored 253 in total — 116 kg in snatch and 137 kg in clean and jerk.

Her result was still far from North Korea’s Kim Kuk-hyang, who grabbed gold with 291 kg in total. The silver went to Son Young-hee of South Korea while Thailand’s Chaidee Duangaksorn bagged the bronze.

In the overall weightlifting medal tally, Indonesia finished with a gold, a silver and a bronze.

Indonesian team manager Dirja Wiharja said the result showed an improvement as his team could win its maiden Asiad gold.

“We used to be known as a team that always contributed [silver and bronze] medals. Now, we nailed the gold,” Dirja told The Jakarta Post. “Our next formidable task is to stay at this level.”

As it had been predicted, the country’s ace, Eko Yuli Irawan, won his first Asiad gold in the men’s 62 kg, an improvement from the bronze he nailed in the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.

Surahmat, who competed in the men’s 56 kg category, exceeded expectations as he finished the Games with a bronze. It was a significant improvement for the lifter as he only finished eighth in Incheon.

Sri Wahyuni, whose name was often mentioned as a favorite to win the gold, had to be satisfied with silver as she finished second after North Korean lifter Ri Song-gum in the women’s 48 kg.

North Korea topped the leader board by winning eight gold medals, followed by Iran with two golds and Uzbekistan one.

Uzbekistan surpassed Indonesia in its silver medal collection by bringing home two medals.

The achievement is not a reason for the team’s members to extend their post-Games party, as a list of duties are await them. Next year, they will compete in the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in the Philippines before trying their luck in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

The country’s lifters will start to collect points for the Olympics qualifiers by competing in the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, from Sept. 1 to 10.

Tokyo organizers have scrapped Eko’s category and changed it to 61 kg.

As one of Indonesia’s medal hopefuls, Dirja said the national team still had no permanent place to hold a training camp. For the Games, the team moved between Lampung and Jakarta to train.

“We need to have a permanent facility so the athletes can focus on training,” he concluded.