CIDISS. Continuing the spirit of the Asian Games which is recognized as having succeeded in becoming a sports party that injects a positive spirit and reaps a lot of praise at home and abroad, Indonesia also hosts the 2018 Asian Para Games. This is the first time that Indonesia has hosted an Asian disability sports party. To do this, the government has also prepared facilities and infrastructure for athletes.
Indonesia is hosting the third Asian Para Games which was first held in Guangzhou, China, in 2010. In organizing this event, Indonesia has taken lessons and evaluated the implementation of the Asian Games starting from the athlete’s residence, transportation and administration, including ticket management.
The Asian Para Games torch relay series began on Wednesday, September 5, with the collection of fire from Mrapen’s eternal fire source in Grobogan, Central Java and will be carried around to eight cities in Indonesia until arriving in Jakarta. There are 18 sports competed with 568 numbers. For comparison, the 2018 Asian Games compete with 40 sports with 463 numbers. Number of numbers per sport is caused by games having different numbers to classify athletes according to their physical background. Some sports are contested, including archery, athletics, badminton, boccia, bowling, chess, bicycle racing, goal ball, judo, bowling field, weightlifting, shooting, swimming, table tennis, sitting volleyball, wheelchair basketball, archery chairs wheels, and wheelchair tennis.
At the ASEAN level, Indonesia’s achievements in the Games did not disappoint. In 2015 Indonesia ranked second, and won the standings in 2014. At the 2014 Asian Games in South Korea, Indonesia was ranked ninth with nine gold medals, 11 silver and 18 bronze. Four Indonesian gold medals come from badminton, two from table tennis, and three from swimming. In addition to the three sports, Indonesia also won silver and bronze medals from athletics and weightlifting.
Seeing this success, Indonesia shows the world its ability to hold international events. This success is important for Indonesia’s development because in addition to enhancing Indonesia’s good name, the success of organizing events can be an attraction for investors to invest in Indonesia. This is very much needed, considering that the government is currently spurring infrastructure development so that it requires substantial costs.
By: Mirwan Achmad )*
