BENDERRAnews, 23/8/18 (Jakarta): Indonesia added more gold and silver to its medal tally at this year’s Asian Games, after wins by both its men’s and women’s paragliding teams at Gunung Mas in Bogor, West Java, on Wednesday (22/08).
The men’s team consisting of Hening Paradigma, Thomas Widyananto, Roni Pratama, Jafro Megaranto and Aris Apriansyah earned 1,104 points in six rounds of the accuracy competition, beating out close contender South Korea, which achieved 1,771 points for second place. Thailand won bronze with 1,901 points.
“Of course it’s the result of hard work by the athletes and in line with our expectations to get one gold from the men’s team,” Indonesian paragliding team coach Gendon Subandono said, as quoted by Antara, in ‘The Jakarya Globe’ media.
Indonesians Lis Andriana, Rika Wijayanti and Ike Ayu won silver in the women’s team accuracy competition after South Korea beat them for gold. Thailand won bronze.
Psychological pressure
Gendon said Indonesia’s paragliders not only faced weather issues but also psychological pressure as representatives of the host nation.
“The future of paragliding [in Indonesia] is promising. We will pay serious attention to the development of this sport. We have great potential in this sport,” Indonesian chef de mission Syafruddin, who witnessed the event, said in a statement.
Indonesia hopes to win at least 16 gold medals to place in the top 10 in the medal count of this year’s Asian Games.
Paragliding was included in the Asian Games for the first time this year, with 104 athletes from 17 countries competing in the sport. Thats according Inyo Rumondor PR Paragliding Indonesia. (B-IR/AN/JG/jr)
