Failed To Win Medals, Athletes With Indonesian Weightlifting A Lesson From World Championships In Egypt

The Indonesian weightlifting team learned valuable lessons when participating in the World Para Powerlifting Championship 2025 in Cairo, Egypt. This championship took place on 9-19 October 2025 and was attended by 522 athletes from 71 countries. Six athletes who departed for Egypt had to go home without bringing a single medal.

The world championship has the opening status of the qualification for the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics. This made the event a lot of surprises.

Ni Nengah Widiasih, who fell in the women's 45 kg class, was only ranked eighth overall. Meanwhile, among participants from Asia, she was ranked third.

On three occasions, Widi, as he is familiarly called, lifted a load of 97 kg, then 99 kg and 101 kg. The force is the same as what Widi did when he appeared at the Paris 2024 Paralympics.

"From World Champ, we learned a lot of valuable lessons. We returned to Indonesia to train even harder so we could compete with other elite athletes," said Widi.

"We still have three years to qualify for the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics," he said again.

Widi assessed that there were many changes in the highest level championship for the world's weightlifters. He could not predict athletes who appeared in the 41 kg and 45 kg classes.

"There are a lot of changes in athletes, from 41 kg class athletes up to 45 kg and vice versa, 45 kg athletes dropped to 41 kg. I can't predict that the competition will be fiercer than the 2024 Paralympics," said Widi.

Widi is also grateful that he can still lift the load of 101 kg which is his best record. In fact, Widi competed in a condition where his shoulder injury had not recovered 100 percent.

"After returning from Egypt I had to train even harder while focusing on healing shoulder injuries so that next year I could be even more optimal," he said.

Best Force Record

In this championship, Indonesia also dispatched Muhammad Mabruk Arib Dzaky. This is the first time the athlete who was born on February 29, 2004, has participated in the World Championships level championship.

Dzaky who dropped in the men's 59 kg class recorded lifts of 158 kg, 159 kg and 161 kg on three occasions. Dzaky is ranked 12th in general and ranked sixth among Asian athletes.

The 161 kilograms of the best force is also a new record for Dzaky. He said he was happy to be able to make his debut to compete with the world's best athletes.

"If you say nervous, I'm not, I'm just curious what the World Champ level is like. It turned out that after I saw the match it was amazing. The world athletes' class was extraordinary," said Dzaky.

After returning from Egypt, Dzaky was more motivated to improve his achievements. In addition to full focus on winning tickets to the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics, Dzaky also wants to appear in the 2026 Asian Para Games.

"After this, we will prepare for the maximum again. Continue to practice, whatever happens we must try even harder," he said.

The achievement recorded by Dzaky received appreciation from the head coach of Indonesia's weightlifters, Coni Ruswanta. He did not predict that Dzaky could break the personal record in Egypt.

"Dzaky is a potential athlete because he is still young and his generation can rise rapidly," explained Coni.

Overall, Coni is quite satisfied with Dzaky's class and five other athletes. In the inaugural championship that Indonesia participated in after the Paris Paralympics, several athletes showed good progress.

Sriyanti, who fell in the women's +86 kg class, managed to break a personal record with an lift of 145 kg after Paris only managed to lift 138 kg, while Siti Mahcepat, who this time dropped in the women's -86 kg class, managed to improve her personal record with an lift of 131 kg, while in Paris Siti could only reach 125 kg.

However, they have to train even harder because competition at the world level is getting tighter and in preparation for the 2026 ASIAN Para Games.

"In this championship, we also participated in a team event class consisting of women teams and mixed teams to pursue rankings in Asia in order to appear in Nagoya. This team class will only be held for the first time at the Asian Para Games," said Coni.

In the women's team number, Indonesia had to settle for fourth place, after losing to Uzbekistan in the bronze medal match, while in the mixed team number Indonesia could only win sixth place.