Nurul Akmal Becomes The 21st Athlete To Qualify For The 2024 Paris Olympics

JAKARTA The lifter from Aceh, Nurul Akmal, confirmed himself as the 21st Indonesian athlete to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics in the middle of this year.

Tickets for Nurul are confirmed through an official release issued by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) on Monday, June 3, 2024. IWF announced the Olympic Qualification of the final ranking of athletes who will compete in Paris.

"So, indeed this announcement is a bit late because the case in the Amel class has been represented by five continents that will appear in Paris 2024," said Head of the Weightlifting National Team Coach, Dirdja Wihardja.

If the five continents are represented in the weight category, the continental quota will be allocated to eligible athletes with the next highest ranking in the same weight category (any continent) with respect to the maximum quota per gender and each Olympic committee of each country.

Nurul is actually ranked 11th out of 10 of the world's best athletes in the +81 kilogram class who qualified for Paris. However, he was confirmed to have traveled to the 2024 Paris Olympics after getting a ticket reallocation from the Asian continental zone.

This is Nurul's second time performing at the Olympics after he previously debuted at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. At that time, the lifter who was born in Tanah Luas, Aceh 12, February 12, 1993, finished fifth in the +87 kilogram class with a record snatch of 115 kg and clean and jerk of 141 kg.

"What is clear is that we have prepared and maximized as well as possible. Indonesian lifters rarely qualify in the heavyweight class. This is Amel's second appearance (Nurul Akmal)."

"Hopefully we can give our best and we will provide support from all sides for Amel and the Indonesian weightlifting team," said Dirdja.

The ticket obtained by Nurul makes Indonesia currently has passed a total of 21 athletes to Paris from nine sports.

The athletes are two archery athletes, Rifda Irfanaluthfi from gymnastics, Fathur Gustafian from shooting, Desak Made Rita Kusuma Dewi and Rahmat Adi Mulyono from rock climbing, Rio Waida from surfing, Rizki Juniansyah and Eko Yuli Irawan from weightlifting, and La Memo from rowing.

Then, the badminton branch was represented by nine athletes, namely Jonatan Christie and Anthony Sinisuk Ginting in the men's singles, Gregoria Mariska Tunjung in the women's singles, Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto in the men's doubles, Apriyani Rahayu/Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti in the women's doubles, and Rinov Rivaldy/Pitha Haningtyas Mentari in the mixed doubles.