PP Persambi Wants Sambo to Enter the PON NTT and NTB 2028 Sports Branch

JAKARTA - The Central Management of the Indonesian Sambo Association (PP Persambi) wants the sport branch (cabor) of sambo to be competed in the National Sports Week (PON) in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) and (West Nusa Tenggara) in 2028.

PP Persambi Secretary General, Arnold Silalahi, said that the sambo sport has been active for more than a decade in Indonesia and has participated in various international events so that it must be in events such as the PON.

"The great hope of all sambo practitioners throughout Indonesia, provinces, is that sambo can be competed in the 2028 PON in NTB and NTT," he said when met in Jakarta.

The sambo sport made its debut at the Papua edition of the PON in 2021 and was officially contested at the next PON, which took place in Aceh and North Sumatra in 2024.

However, the same thing did not happen at the upcoming PON in NTT-NTB. Of the total 54 sports that will be contested later, the sambo sport is not included.

Arnold said that the opportunity for sambo to participate is still open even though the sports that will be competed in NTT-NTB have been announced. The reason is, there is still a little more than two years left.

"That is our great hope with the achievements and the sambo sport also recognized by the IOC. So, in fact, it is already one of the Olympic sports. We hope we still have a chance," he said.

PP Persambi will face a number of busy agendas this year. One of them is to hold a National Congress (Munas) for the election of the general chairman for the period 2026-2030.

The term of the previous management had expired on January 31, 2026, but there was a request for an extension until April 2026. The National Congress is planned to be held in the first or second week of that month.