- ANTARA FOTO/MUHAMMAD ADIMAJA
Jakarta – The Indonesian Weightlifting Association (PABSI) on Friday sent 15 weightlifters to compete in the International Weightlifting Federation or IWF World Championship 2023 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, held on September 4-17.
This is one of the mandatory qualifying events for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
"I hope Indonesian weightlifting team will be able to qualify as many athletes to the 2024 Olympics," General Chairperson of the Executive Board of PABSI, Rosan Perkasa Roeslani said in a statement.
Lifter Indonesia, Windy Cantika Aisah meraih medali emas di SEA Games 2019.
- VIVAnews / Riki Ilham Rafles
Roeslani stated that PABSI has achieved its previous targets, which included bagging gold in the Asian Games, and its current target is taking gold medals at the Olympics.
Seven male weightlifters and eight female Indonesian weightlifters will compete in the IWF World Championship.
The seven male athletes are: Satrio Adi Nugroho (55kg class) Rahmat Erwin Abdullah (73kg class) Rizki Juniansyah (73kg class) Eko Yuli Irawan (61kg class) Ricko Saputra (61kg class) Mohammad Yasin (67kg class) Muhamad Zul Ilmi (89kg class).
The eight female athletes are: Siti Nafisatul Hariroh (45kg class) Juliana Klarisa (55kg class) Windy Cantika Aisah (56kg class) Natasya Beteyob (59kg class) Sarah (59kg class) Tsabitha Alfiah Ramadani (71kg class) Restu Anggi (71kg class) Nurul Akmal (+87 kg class) Eko Yuli Irawan, who previously won a silver medal in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, said that he will strive to maintain his current world number two position.
"Because, this is a mandatory event, we must stay on track to maintain our position to qualify for the Olympics, even though we don't have to be world champions because we will also face the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, this September," he remarked.
He also said that he will have to maintain peak performance during the upcoming Asian Games.
Meanwhile, Windy Cantika Aisah, who won bronze in the 49kg class in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, said that she moved up to the 56kg weight class for the IWF competition after experiencing injuries post the Tokyo Olympics.
