Two 2023 Asian Games Gold Medals Leave the Hands of Indonesian Rock Climbing Athletes Due to Communication Problems

Atlet panjang tebing Indonesia beraksi di ajang Asian Games 2023. (Foto via Antara)

JAKARTA - The Indonesian rock climbing team failed to add a gold medal at the 2023 Asian Games, Wednesday, October 8. Two opportunities to win gold medals in the speed relay number slipped from the hands of the Red and White team.

The coach of the national rock climbing team, Hendra Basir, revealed that athletes' poor communication was a factor in losing the two gold medals.

On Wednesday night at the Shaoxing Keqiao Yangshan Sport Climbing Center, Veddriq Leonardo, Kiromal Katibin and Rahmad Adi Mulyono failed to finish the men's speed relay final against hosts China because they were caught stealing the start.

Meanwhile, in the women's event, Desak Made Rita Kusuma Dewi, Rajiah Sallsabillah and Nurul Iqamah also had to give up their second gold to be brought home by China.

"We have not been able to maximize all the gold potential in speed for both men and women," said Hendra as quoted by Antara, Wednesday, October 8.

"There are many variables that influence the risk in the speed category.... This is not because we lost speed but we made several mistakes," he continued.

The Indonesian men's speed relay team actually emerged as the main challenger after recording the fastest time of 16.632 seconds above China in the qualifying round. However, the final was the real test for the Red and White trio.

Veddriq admitted that he had to carry out a self-evaluation after letting go of the chance to win a gold medal in the individual speed event and didn't want to slip up again when fighting with his friends in the relay event.

This 26 year old athlete from Pontianak this evening climbed almost without making a mistake in the final, but after Kiromal, as the second climber, finished his climb, the false start indicator came on at the same time as Rahmad's start.

Zhang Liang, Wu Peng, and Wang Xinshang also had the right to bring home China's first rock climbing gold medal.

Hendra confirmed that the false start occurred after Rahmat climbed. The reason was, Veddriq, who was the first climber, fell not fast enough so that his command was not heard by the last climber.

"So there was a problem with communication between the first person and the third person... Veddriq had to quickly go down to make sure the third climber was ready. If you look at his position in the recording he was still being pulled by the committee, if you wanted to give the 'go' signal, you wouldn't have heard it like that. "The code must be from Veddriq," said Hendri.

After the competition, Veddriq promised to concentrate more. "A false start is something that cannot be predicted, how noisy the crowd and the enthusiasm of the climbers can influence this," said the Asian Games individual speed world record holder.

While the men's team was too quick to make decisions, the women's team was too slow, said the coach.

Desak and Rajiah took the lead after the second climb, but Nurul slipped on the way to the finish and found the home athlete finishing the race first with a record of 20.925 seconds, three and a half seconds ahead of the 23.506 set by the Red and White team.

"We got the advantage on the first climber, then we were still slightly superior on the second climber and it was communication on the third climber that ultimately resulted in our slow start.

"And when the start is slow, the third climber will try to reach the finish but ultimately slips," said Hendra.

Responding to today's unsatisfactory results, Rajiah, who at the 2018 Asian Games helped Indonesia win gold in the women's speed relay, felt relieved.

"Every competition has risks and they cannot be predicted," said the 24-year-old athlete.

"What we wanted was gold, but today we were given silver. We are sad but we also have to be grateful. What is certain is that this is not the end of everything, there are still higher events in the future such as the Olympics."

Two silver medals in the speed relay today add to the achievements of the Indonesian rock climbing team which previously brought home a gold medal in the women's single speed event through Desak which was complemented by Rajiah Sallsabillah's bronze medal in the same number. Then Veddriq Leonardo finished third with bronze in the men's single speed number.