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.
Ticket to Tokyo almost out of reach for Indonesia’s sport climbers
Change Size
Aries Susanti Rahayu
(Courtesy of FPTI/-)
I
ndonesia’s sports climbers may have missed out on their chance to compete at next year’s Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo after failing at a qualifier in November, an official has revealed.
Indonesian star climber Aries Susanti Rahayu and young gun Alfian M. Fajri failed to seal a ticket to Tokyo at November’s International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) Combined Qualifier 2019 in Toulouse, France. The tournament was one of the few pathways to book a spot at the Tokyo Games.
At the competition, which featured a combination of lead, speed and boulder disciplines, Aries and Fajri finished 16th and 13th, respectively. Aries and Fajri’s strongest discipline is speed climbing.
Indonesian Sport Climbing Federation (FPTI) deputy chief Pristiawan Buntoro said the Toulouse tournament was the best chance the Indonesians had to qualify for the 2020 Olympics, the pinnacle of world sport.
“[Our climbers] failed to qualify, and now we’re looking at a tiny loophole to even reach the Tokyo Games,” he told Antara news agency on Tuesday.
Aries, who has earned the nickname “Spiderwoman”, has shown she can beat the best on the world stage. In addition to picking up two gold medals at the 2018 Asian Games, which were held in Jakarta and Palembang, South Sumatra, she broke the women’s world speed climbing record at the 2019 IFSC Xiamen World Cup after clocking a time of 6.995 seconds.
The 24-year-old also collected three gold medals at Climbing World Cup events in 2018.
Only a combined climbing event will be featured at the 2020 Olympics, meaning Aries’s forte will only be one part of the overall contest.
“Bear in mind that the 2020 Olympics will only feature a combined competition, and not speed climbing [as a separate competition]. The combined event offers nothing for our speed climbers, really,” said Pristiawan.
Read also: Indonesia looks at odds of sending more athletes to Tokyo Olympics
The Asia Championship in May, 2020, in Morioka, Japan, will be the final chance for Indonesia’s climbers to qualify for Tokyo.
Indonesia is likely to see more success at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, which will feature lead, speed, boulder and combined events.
