PB IKASI Holds Qualification For The Aceh National Sports Week In North Sumatra 2024

Qualification for the Aceh National Sports Week (PON) North Sumatra XXI. (Doc. Ist)

JAKARTA - The Executive Board (PB) of the All-Indonesian Budget Association (IKASI) will hold the qualification for the upcoming Aceh National Sports Week (PON) XXI 2024 North Sumatra.

This event was held at the Gondrong Sports Center (GOR), Cipondoh, Tangerang City on Friday, September 1.

Chairman of PB IKASI Agus Suparmanto said the PON Qualification activity was attended by 314 athletes consisting of 25 provinces including Riau, South Sumatra, Bengkulu, West Java, East Java, Bali, South Sulawesi, East Kalimantan, and Papua.

"I see that all athletes who participate in this qualification look very enthusiastic to compete, later from the results of this qualification as many as 208 athletes will qualify and be able to take part in the upcoming 2024 Aceh-Sumut PON," said Agus.

Agus also added that the event was a form of PB IKASI's seriousness in conducting coaching by collecting fencing athletes from all provinces in Indonesia.

"Indeed, this budget sport has developed very well, so far from 2015-2019 we have won 2 silver and 7 bronze, however, we are not satisfied because if we are satisfied we have to get a gold medal," added Agus.

To provide guidance to fencing athletes, PB IKASI has collaborated with South Korea and will send athletes who have the potential to regenerate, especially for early childhood.

"Training can't be a month or two months, it's a long-term program, not only at the SEA Games or Asian Games, our target must be able to enter the Olympics," concluded Agus.

Meanwhile, Irfan Bachtiar as Deputy Head of Sport Science Science Science and Technology at the Central Indonesian National Sports Committee (KONI) gave his appreciation for the implementation of the Aceh-Sumut PON Qualification.

"We are here for monitoring and evaluation, there are two things that must be seen, namely first about the validity of athletes and secondly in terms of the field of matches, the validity of athletes must of course be seen according to the guidebook whether there are age restrictions and so on, whether the field of matches has been properly implemented," explained Irfan.

This PON qualifying event is basically the first round for PON, because later there will only be 16 provinces that will compete in the 2024 Aceh-Sumut XXI PON, namely the 14 best provinces in the Pra PON event and 2 more provinces to host it.