Indonesia seems to be walking a tightrope in handling its elite athletes, with six months left to the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games in July and August.

In a year-end media gathering on Dec. 31, 2019, Youth and Sports Minister Zainudin Amali said Indonesia had listed at least six qualified athletes for the 2020 Games. They are Lalu Muhammad Zohri in track and field, Eko Yuli Irawan and Windy Cantika Aisah in weightlifting, Riau Ega Agatha and Dinanda Choirunnisa in archery, as well as Vidya Rafika Rahmatan Toyyiba in shooting.

The country has targeted to send more than 30 athletes to the quadrennial event, the pinnacle of world sports. In the previous 2016 edition in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Team Indonesia was powered by 28 athletes who bagged one gold medal in badminton and two silvers in weightlifting.

Indonesia had the biggest contingent in the 2000 Games with 47 athletes, collecting one gold, three silvers and two bronzes.

Indonesian athletes are hoping for more Olympic tickets with future qualifiers in several sports, including sports climbing, which will have its Olympic debut in Tokyo, weightlifting, archery, athletics, gymnastics, cycling, rowing and swimming.

On paper, Indonesia is likely to put pressure on its shuttlers, considering the fact that badminton has been the country’s only source of Olympic gold since 1992, except for the 2012 failure.

Nevertheless, Indonesian weightlifting has the potential to follow its badminton’s success in the hunt for Olympic gold, with 2016 Olympic silver medalist Eko and young gun Cantika — the new holder of the youth world record for women’s 49 kilograms as well as 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games gold medalist in her SEA Games debut — on the team.

The country’s gold hopeful, badminton, is looking at sending eight shuttlers to the Olympics, with many already in the current fight for points in the Games qualifiers, held between April 29, 2019 and April 26, 2020.

In badminton, a country can enter a maximum of two players each in the men’s and women’s singles if both are ranked in the world’s top 16, or one place until the roster of 38 players has been filled. Similar regulations also apply to the doubles category.

As of Wednesday, the race to the Badminton World Federation’s (BWF) Olympic Qualification for Tokyo shows that Indonesia has two shuttlers/pairs in the top-16 in men’s singles, men’s doubles and mixed doubles. Meanwhile, in women’s singles and women’s doubles, Indonesia only has one shuttler and one pair, respectively, in the top-16 list.

Sports observer Djoko Pekik Irianto said the country could only expect whatever was left in store for this Summer Games.

With six athletes as claimed by the minister, plus assuming another eight from badminton, Indonesia is still below its target to send more than 30 participants.

“The clock is ticking, and yet we only have a few athletes [qualified], while we’re aiming to send more than 30,” Djoko, former head of sports achievement enhancement at the Youth and Sports Ministry, told The Jakarta Post recently.

“In order to get more athletes to qualify, we really need to focus on our real [strengths] in the Olympics,” he added.

With a list of Olympic qualifiers ahead, Djoko said Indonesia, apart from badminton, still had a chance to get extra tickets in “main” and “backup” sports. The main sports include weightlifting, athletics and archery, while the backups are cycling, swimming, shooting, rowing and sport climbing.

“It’s time for the sports ministry to intensify coordination meetings with KONI [National Sports Council], the NOC [Indonesian National Olympic Committee] and national sports federations to formulate the best strategy to reach the [30 plus] deployment target,” he added.

Besides the regular path of getting qualified for the Tokyo Games, Indonesian athletes are also expecting to receive wild cards, which are usually provided by Olympic stakeholders.

What’s the deal with badminton?

It has been a tradition for Indonesian badminton to send shuttlers for all categories to the Olympics, which are men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles.

In this edition, the Olympics will see 172 shuttlers competing for five gold medals.

In the BWF’s Race to Tokyo top-16 list, Indonesia has Jonatan Christie and Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in men’s singles, Gregoria Mariska Tunjung in women’s singles, Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo as well as Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan in men’s doubles, Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu in women’s doubles and Praveen Jordan and Melati Daeva Oktavianti as well as Hafiz Faizal and Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja in mixed doubles.

The BWF, on its website bwfbadminton.org, disclaims, however, that the displayed list is not final.

Despite Marcus and Kevin’s strong ranking, which was number one as of Wednesday, Ahsan and Hendra are said to be a favorite for the Tokyo Games following their achievements in 2019.

The veteran pair won last year’s prestigious World Championships, All England and season-ending BWF World Tour Finals.

“New year, new target, new spirit. Let’s reach beyond,” 35-year-old Hendra wrote his post on Instagram account, @hendrasansan, under a photo with partner Ahsan. Fans showered them with praise and wished for their success in the upcoming Olympics.

Making his debut at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Eko, winner of three Olympic medals, has never won a gold. His best achievement to date is a 2016 Olympic silver, followed by bronze medals in 2012 and 2008.

For Tokyo, the 30-year-old is set on breaking his own personal record by winning the gold.

The seasoned weightlifter, who won the 2019 SEA Games gold in men’s 61 kilograms, wants nothing more but to reach the top podium in Tokyo.

“The next target is definitely the Olympics because [the 2019 SEA Games were] also part of the [Tokyo] qualification,” he told journalists after winning the gold. “[The SEA Games] are a warmup for the Olympics. I need to be more prepared as opponents will also do the same. We must not lose in the preparation.”

Shine on, young guns

Zohri is the newest phenomenon in Indonesian track and field.

By the age of 19, Zohri had accomplished a list of achievements, including becoming the first and only Asian male to win a medal in the 2018 World Athletics U20 Championships — once called the IAAF U20 Championships — where he won gold in the 100-meter event by clocking in at 10.18 seconds.

In the 2019 Asian Athletics Championships, Zohri exceeded his personal best by running 10.13, also beating Indonesia’s then-fastest sprinter Suryo Agung Wibowo’s 10.17 record. In the Asian event, Zohri won the silver medal after gold medalist Yoshihide Kiryu of Japan.

In May 2019, Zohri sharpened his timing, clocking in at 10.03 to win the bronze medal in the 2019 Seiko Grand Prix in Osaka, Japan, to break a Southeast Asian record and secure a place in the Tokyo Games. The Olympic limit is 10.05 seconds.

Meanwhile, 18-year-old Vidya secured the ticket for Tokyo after her performance in the 2019 Asian Shooting Championship in Doha in November. She finished 14th in the women’s 10 m air rifle event during the qualification round.

Vidya polished her performance in the 2019 SEA Games, winning two golds that boosted her confidence ahead of Tokyo.

“I hope that [I can get] a satisfying result for Indonesia at the Olympic Games,” she said as quoted by Antara.

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