Menpora Will Only Send Sports That Have The Potential To Donate Many Medals To The Vietnam SEA Games

Menpora Zainudin Amali (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Youth and Sports Zainudin Amali confirmed that his party will only send priority sports according to the National Sports Grand Design (DBON), to the 2021 SEA Games Vietnam on May 12-23.

This step was taken considering that the SEA Games is only a target between fostering national sports achievements or evaluating towards the Asian Games. However, Zainudin said the Ministry of Youth and Sports (Kemenpora) currently has not determined which sports will be sent to Vietnam because it is still in the evaluation stage of an independent team.

"We are currently in the review process. Even though the National Training Center has been running since January, we prioritize the branches that support us in DBON because we will soon be participating in the qualification for the 2024 Paris Olympics," Zainudin said after closing the Indonesian Olympic Committee Member Meeting in Tangerang, Tuesday quoted Between, Wednesday.

The Ministry of Youth and Sports, he continued, will also focus on sports that have the potential to donate many medals and have the opportunity to become the overall champion of the sport.

Meanwhile, Chairman of KOI Raja Sapta Oktohari said participation in the 2022 SEA Games was only a form of Indonesia's solidarity with the host Vietnam and the Southeast Asian sports community because the SEA Games were supposed to be held in 2021, but were postponed to 2022 due to the spike in COVID-19 cases in Vietnam.

The delay resulted in a limitation of the preparation and departure budget for the biennial multievent.

Okto, Raja Sapta's nickname, said that sending athletes to the SEA Games should be limited to sports that have the potential to win medals.

"We dispatched athletes to the SEA Games as a form of our support for the host. So, of course, it is a bit inaccurate to ask about the target because this is not the place to be targeted, but only limited to our participation in Southeast Asia," said Okto.

"If there are independent ones, based on our agreement with sports, we will send all sports if they want to be independent, meaning they want to risk (pay) themselves and we will support them," he said again.