The Struggle Of The Indonesian Contingent At The Tokyo Paralympics Today Without Additional Medals

David Jacobs (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Five representatives of the Indonesian contingent from three sports that were participated in the Tokyo Paralympics today, Tuesday, ended without additional medals. They must recognize the advantages of their competitors.

Cited from Antara, from the para-athletic sport, the Red and White team had Setiyo Budihartanto who competed in the men's long jump number T47 and Putri Aulia who appeared in the women's 100-meter number T13.

Setiyo Budihartanto competed with 13 participants from various other countries and in the final, he finished the race in 10th place with a jump of 6.47 meters.

This result is no better than the previously registered entry time of 7.10 meters.

In the competition earlier, Setiyo Budihartanto made three attempts. The best results are in the first jump. While the next two experiments, the results were not optimal with each 6.28 meters and 3.79 meters.

Thus, 6.47 meters in the first experiment became the result taken and placed him in 10th place out of a total of 13 participants.

The gold medal was won by Robiel Yankiel Sol Cervantes from Cuba with a jump of 7.46 meters, the silver medal went to Roderick Townsend (United States) with a jump of 7.43 meters, and the bronze medal by Nikita Kotukov (Russian Paralympic Committee) with a jump of 7.34 meters.

Meanwhile, from the women's 100 meters T13, Putri Aulia failed to advance to the final after finishing third out of a total of six participants who appeared in the heat of three preliminary rounds at the Olympic Stadium.

Putri recorded a time of 12.55 seconds, according to the competition's official record. He was behind Azerbaijan's Elena Chebanu who finished ahead in 12.16 seconds and Spain's Adiaratou Iglesias Forneiro with 12.20 seconds.

Thus, Elena Chebanu and Adiaratou Iglesias Forneiro have the right to advance to the final which takes two participants with the best time records from each heat and starts at 18:10 p.m. Indonesian Western Time.

Para-swimming also failed

Meanwhile, Indonesian para-swimming representative Syuci Indriani also achieved a similar result in the 200-meter women's individual medley SM14.

Syuci finished fourth in the heat two race with a time of 2 minutes 40.46 seconds at Tokyo Aquatics. These results made her fail to advance to the final.

Meanwhile, the representative of the Russian Paralympic Committee, Valeriia Shabalina, finished ahead with a time of 2 minutes 26.84 seconds.

The second and third positions were occupied by Australian representatives Paige Leonhardt and Ashley Van Rijswijk, who each recorded a time of 2 minutes 32.70 seconds and 2 minutes 39.10 seconds.

Overall, Syuci's record time put her in 13th place out of 17 participants who competed in the 200-meter women's individual medley SM14.

This is the third time Syuci has failed to maximize his opportunity at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.

Previously, Syuci's steps were also stopped in the preliminary round in the women's 100-meter breaststroke SB14 and women's 100-meter butterfly S14.

In terms of achievement, this result is no better than Syuci's score when she debuted at the Rio de Janeiro Paralympics, Brazil, 2016, when she reached the final in the 100 meters SB14 breaststroke and 200 meters SM14 women's individual medley.

While the eight participants who were entitled to advance to the final were Valeriia Shabalina, Paige Leonhardt, then two representatives from Great Britain, Bethany Firth and Jessica Jane Applegate, Pernilla Lindberg (Sweden), Mami Inoue (Japan), Ruby Storm (Australia), and Janina Falk (Austria).

Para-table tennis also failed

The same condition is also experienced by representatives of table tennis. In the men's team number 9-10, Indonesia, which fielded David Jacobs and Komet Akbar, was eliminated in the round of 16.

Indonesia lost to China with a score of 0-2 in a match that took place at table four of the Tokyo Metropolitan Gym.

Red and White lost the first point after David Jacobs and Great Comet and lost to Hao Lian's representative who paired with Yi Qing Zhao with a score of 1-3 (9-11, 12-10, 4-11, 4-11).

Then in the second match, Indonesia hopes to equalize by lowering David Jacobs in the singles match. While China took down Hao Lian.

But in fact, David Jacobs was unable to do much after losing to Hao Lian with a score of 0-3 (8-11, 10-12, 5-11) in a duration of 32 minutes.

This result also made Indonesia fail to advance to the quarter-finals. While China is next scheduled to face Great Britain, which previously beat Spain with a score of 2-0.

The defeat of five Indonesian representatives who appeared today also closed their struggle at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.

That way, Indonesia still survives with three medals at the Tokyo Paralympics with details of one silver and two bronze.

The silver medal was won by Ni Nengah Widiasih from the women's 41kg para-powerlifting event, while two bronze medals from Saptoyogo Purnomo in the men's 100m para-athletic event T37 and David Jacobs from the men's individual table tennis division.

Indonesia still has the opportunity to add to its medal coffers because a number of sports will still struggle, including para-badminton which is the mainstay.