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| Indonesia's Deni Deni embraces weights celebrating a successful lift on the men's 69Kg Group A weightlifting competition at the ExCel venue at the London 2012 Olympic Games on July 31, 2012. (Reuters Photo/ Grigory Dukor) |
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As Britain
basked in the feel-good factor of its most successful Olympic performance,
Indonesia and many of its Asian peers found themselves going back to the
drawing board.
The London
Games officially closed on Sunday with no Indonesian athletes taking part in
the closing ceremony at the Olympic Stadium. All 22 athletes had returned home
earlier.
Indonesia’s
Olympics finished well before Sunday, with the country only earning one silver
and one bronze medal in men’s weightlifting. Sprinter Fernando Lumain and
marathon runner Triyaningsih were the last to compete, and they had left London
last Tuesday without adding to the country’s medal count.
This year’s
Olympics was one of Indonesia’s worst since making its debut at the 1952 Games
in Helsinki. It failed to come home with a gold medal in badminton since the
sport gained full Olympic status in 1992. Badminton had produced all six of
Indonesia’s Olympic gold medals, but none of the country’s shuttlers managed to
even reach the finals in London.
Mixed doubles
pair Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir came in as Indonesia’s best hope but
left empty-handed, losing in the semifinals before bowing out meekly in the
bronze-medal match. When Indonesia did make the headlines, it was for the wrong
reasons — Greysia Polii and Meiliana Jauhari were among four women’s doubles
pairs disqualified for intentionally playing poorly to receive an easier
quarterfinal draw.
Sports
officials have offered apologies for the poor results but had few answers on
how to stop Indonesia’s slide into irrelevance.
Youth and
Sports Minister Andi Mallarangeng suggested narrowing the country’s focus.
“We have to
determine which sports need to be given priority,” he said. “We’ve been too
dependent on badminton as a gold mine in the Olympics. I think we will have to
pick probably five sports [as top priorities] for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de
Janiero.”
Sports
given priority would receive more funding and other support, the minister
added.
He offered
no other details of his plan, only saying that badminton and weightlifting
would be two of the priority sports and “we’ll use a more scientific approach
and technology in training our athletes.”
Weightlifting
has consistently produced medals for Indonesia since the 2000 Games, when Lisa Rumbewas
won silver in the women’s 48-kilogram division. Triyatno finished second in the
men’s 69kg while Eko Yuli Irawan was third in the men’s 62kg.
Lukman, who
coached the weightlifting team, said Indonesia’s success was down to keeping up
with new training methods and paying attention to details, such as athletes’
diets.
“We’ve been
introducing technology such as recording the athletes’ training with
slow-motion cameras so they know what to improve,” he said.
Indonesia’s
Southeast Asian peers also largely struggled in London. Thailand finished with
two silvers and a bronze, a far cry from the two gold and two silver medals it
won at the 2008 Games in Beijing.
While
Malaysian star Lee Chong Wei had to settle for men’s singles silver, the
country earned its first Olympic medal outside badminton when Pandalela Rinong
won bronze in women’s 10-meter platform diving.
Asian
powerhouse China could not quite emulate its stunning performance from four
years ago. It finished the 2008 Games with 100 medals, including 51 gold, but
it fell back slightly after leaving home soil. As of Sunday afternoon, China
was second in the medals table with 87 overall — 38 gold, 27 silver and 22
bronze — while the United States was first with 46 gold, 29 silver and 29
bronze.
South Korea
and Japan also fell back in the table. Iran was the only Asian nation to
improve its standing, earning four gold, five silver and three bronze after
winning just one gold and one bronze in Beijing.
The host
nation, meanwhile, celebrated its best Olympics in a century. Great Britain
racked up 29 gold medals and 64 overall to secure third place in the table,
beating out Russia.
Its
performance was its best since London hosted the Games in 1908. Great Britain
topped the table that year with 56 gold medals and 146 overall.
Additional reporting by AP & AFP
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