Indonesian Contingent Sends 476 Athletes To SEA Games 2021 Hanoi, 60 Percent Of Young Athletes

Announcement of the Indonesian Contingent for the 2021 SEA Games Hanoi. (VOI/ Cosmas Kopong Beda)

JAKARTA – The number of Indonesian contingents for the 2021 Hanoi SEA Games has been officially reduced. In total, the Red and White team only sent as many as 476 athletes from 32 sports for the event in the Southeast Asian region.

This number experienced an efficiency of 43.4 percent of the number of athletes sent to the 2019 Philippines SEA Games. At that time, the Red and White team sent as many as 841 athletes to compete in the 529 contested numbers.

"The sports that include the National Sports Grand Design (DBON) number 246 athletes from 24 sports, while non-DBON athletes have 230 and 18 sports," said the Head of the Review Team for the 2021 Hanoi SEA Games Contingent, Mochamad Asnawi, at the Ministry of Youth and Sports (Kemenpora) office, Jakarta, on Wednesday, March 30

At the Hanoi SEA Games, Indonesia will not participate in 14 sports and sub-sports. This is because the sport in question does not have a track record of achievement, has no chance of getting a medal, and has organizational problems.

In addition to reducing the number of contingents, the composition of the athletes sent was also mostly young athletes. With details of 60 percent for young athletes, while the other 40 percent are filled by senior athletes.

"We're talking about the Olympic targets, but what the seniors sent all clearly doesn't make sense. I asked from the start that 60 percent of them are young athletes so that we have a back-up after seniors," said Youth and Sports Minister (Menpora) Zainudin Amali.

The 2021 SEA Games Hanoi is the 31st edition of the multi-sport event in the Southeast Asian region. The event was originally scheduled to take place from November 21 to December 2, 2021. However, it had to be moved to May 12 to 23, 2022 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

For this year a total of 40 sports will be contested, especially those that will participate in the Olympics later. This is the second time Vietnam has hosted the SEA Games since 2003.

In the 2019 edition in the Philippines, Indonesia ranks fourth in the final medal standings. At that time, the Red and White contingent brought home a total of 267 medals, with details of 72 gold, 84 silver, and 111 bronze.