As of Friday afternoon, Indonesia ranked 12th in the medals tally, seven places below ASEAN neighbor Thailand, after winning three gold medals from shooting and wushu events, three silvers from wushu and skateboarding and 10 bronzes from shooting, rowing, tennis and wushu.

Although the country’s medal collection is still a far cry from the target of 12 golds, the national team of 413 athletes is taking a careful and calculated step in its bid to win medals in the 30 sports in which it is competing.

Shooting, wushu and rowing seem to be among favorite sports for Indonesia, on top of the regular badminton and weightlifting, to collect the medals this year, but tennis and skateboarding produced a sweet surprise in the tally.

Indonesian shooters showed their mettle as the competition kicked off. Muhammad Sejahtera Dwi Putra became the first Indonesian to snatch a gold, as he bested the men’s 10-meter running target on Monday. On the second day, Putra grabbed his second gold in the 10 m running target mixed run, making him the first Indonesian athlete to win a pair of golds in an Asian Games.

The third gold came from Harris Horatius in in the men’s nangquan and nangun all-round wushu competition on Tuesday.

Indonesia took its first silver of the 2022 Asian Games through wushu athlete Edgar Xavier Marvelo in the men’s changquan, with the first bronzes through Chelsea Corputty and Mutiara Rahma Putri in the women’s lightweight double sculls of rowing.

Indonesia collected more bronzes in rowing, namely in the men’s double sculls through Ihram and Memo, and the men’s coxed eight through Rifqi Harits Taufiqurahman, Kakan Kusmana, Sulpianto, Rendi Setia Maulana, Asuhan Pattiha, Ferdiansyah Hafid, Denri Maulidzar Al-Ghiffari, Ardi Isadi and Ujang Hasbulloh.

Wednesday saw Indonesia win two medals in tennis through the women’s doubles team of Aldila Sutjiadi and Janice Tjen who took a bronze, and Sanggoe Darma Tanjung who lost in the men’s street final to take the silver.

Indonesia still has a couple of its stronger sports to look forward to in the quadrennial event, especially in the second half of the Games.

Traditionally, badminton is the sport in which Indonesia can expect to win medals. On Friday morning, however, the country missed an opportunity to bring home the women’s team event after losing to the host team 3-0 in the opening round.

Indonesian shuttlers still keep their winning chance alive in the individual competition, which starts on Monday. In the previous Asian Games in 2018 held in Jakarta and Palembang, the host won two gold medals in the men’s singles and men’s doubles, two silvers and four bronzes.

Another favorite sport to watch is weightlifting. In the previous Games, Indonesia bagged one gold, one silver and one bronze. This year, Olympic medalists Eko Yuli Irawan and Rahmat Erwin Abdullah are two lifters that Indonesia is banking on to bring home medals from the competition, which starts on Saturday.

Last but not least is sport climbing, which gave Indonesia three gold medals, two silvers and a bronze at home five years ago. This time around Indonesia fields six of its best climbers in Hangzhou and is set to repeat its medal-winning feat when the competition begins on Tuesday.

It is perhaps too early to assess the overall performance of the national team in Hangzhou, but clearly the pre-tournament target of winning 12 golds, or eight golds in the coming week, is a tall order. On the other hand, such a target is a good way to push our athletes to show what they are made off.

With pencak silat absent, there is no way Indonesia can rewrite the historic medal collection of 31 golds in 2018, as 14 came from the country’s traditional martial art.

Nevertheless, every medal our athletes win counts. We feel nothing but pride and gratitude for their fighting spirit.