The Windows Of The PON Basketball Venue Broken By The Wind Injured 5 People

JAKARTA Five people were reportedly injured as a result of being hit by broken glass from the basketball venue window at the 2024 Aceh-Sumut National Sports Week (PON) which was destroyed by strong winds.

The venue in question is at the Banda Aceh National Hope Stadium Complex, Aceh. The incident occurred during the women's 3x3 basketball match between North Sumatra versus South Sulawesi which was taking place on Wednesday, September 18, morning WIB.

In the video circulating, the glass window is seen flying and hitting the audience at the nearest distance. The audience immediately reflexed to find a safe spot to the other side of the stands.

Citing local media, the Inspiration Channel, the five victims suffered minor injuries and the rest had to be referred to Meuraxa Hospital, which is not so far from the scene.

This issue forced the match to be postponed for a while until the afternoon while waiting for the team to clean up the broken glass scattered in the stands.

Apart from the basketball venue, the archery arena located inside the same complex was also devastated by the wind. It happened after the semifinals of the men's and women's national numbers.

The wind made the tents on the left side of the match arena scattered from their place. There were several tarup connections from other tents that were released.

In addition, a number of fans and other facilities also fell and were wet due to thunderstorms, including a television unit in the stands which was also lifted from its place.

The panel of judges for the archery match, Ilham Maulana, said that the national number match, which should have started again at 13.00 WIB, is likely to be postponed to an undetermined time.

"It might be postponed first. We have to arrange (all of them) again. There were a lot of target boards that fell, right, so they were postponed first," Ilham told reporters at the location as quoted by Antara.

These two incidents add to the long list of venue problems in Aceh. Earlier on Tuesday, heavy rains also knocked down the roof from the location of the shooting sport which is located at Rindam IM Mata Ie, Aceh Besar.

This series of incidents made the image of this year's edition PON even more damaged. Apart from not being able to ward off bad weather, several other venues are also in the spotlight because they are considered not ready to hold matches at all.

Athletes Asked To Be Alert

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) Maritime Ulee Lheue Port predicts Banda Aceh will still be filled with extreme weather until 20 September.

The BMKG coordinator of the region, M. Jamal, explained that this situation occurred due to atmospheric disturbances which made the sea level temperature warm in the waters of South and West Aceh so that more convective clouds occurred and higher evaporation occurred.

"Our appeal to athletes or PON officials to be more alert to the emergence of hydrometeorological disasters such as floods, landslides and other disasters. Maybe the impact of the current weather conditions is very varied and rapidly changing significantly," he said.