In the past three decades, female archers have become increasingly reliable in winning medals in the recurve category.
By
ADRIAN FAJRIANSYAH & DENTY PIAWAI NASTITIE
·4 minutes read
CLARK, KOMPAS — In the past three decades, female archers have become increasingly reliable in winning medals in the recurve category. This would appear to be the positive effect of the achievements of Nurfitriyana Salman Lantang, Lilies Handayania and Kusuma Wardhani, who won silver in the Seoul 1988 Olympics.
On the other hand, among the men, only Riau Ega Agata Salsabila has consistently won medals since the 2011 SEA Games. Nevertheless, a new hope for male archers emerged in the 2019 SEA Games at the Parade Ground, Clark, the Philippines, on Sunday (8/12/2019). Male archers won two golds, namely in the individual recurve and team recurve.
The new hope emerges as Ega now has training partners with equal skills. The individual recurve gold was won by Hendra Purnama, 22, in his SEA Games debut. Meanwhile, the team recurve comprised Ega, Hendra and 15-year-old Arif Dwi Pangestu.
In the finals, Hendra defeated Myanmar archer Htike Linn Oo, 6-4. Meanwhile, Indonesia won against Malaysia, 5-4, in the team recurve.
The Ega-Diananda Choirunisa pair, who won gold in the mixed recurve two years ago, only clinched silver this time around
The Ega-Diananda Choirunisa pair, who won gold in the mixed recurve two years ago, only clinched silver this time around. They were defeated by Vietnam’s Nguyeng Hoang Phi Vu and Loc Thi Dao.
On the rise
Nurfitriyana, who currently trains at the recurve national training camp, said that male archers’ skills were continuously on the rise. They achieved the two-gold target originally set for the women’s individual recurve and mixed recurve.
“It is not that our female archers lack quality. It is just that they are more susceptible to emotional changes. This is the negative factor in archery. On the other hand, regeneration has been quite slow among female archers,” she said.
Nurfitriyana continued that she hoped male archers could sustain their achievements and improve their skills at higher levels of multisport events, including the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Indonesia has obtained two tickets to go to Tokyo, comprising one each in the men’s recurve and women’s recurve. Indonesia secured these tickets when it made it through to the top three of the men’s and women’s individual recurve in a championship in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in mid-2019.
However, the tickets remain by number rather than by name. “We want more archers to play at the Olympics, including males. The opportunity is open at the championships in Berlin, Germany, in June 2020,” he said.
Hope for support
Hendra said he was not satisfied with just the SEA Games achievement and that he hoped to win medals in the Asian Games and the Olympics. However, in order to do so, he said that full support from the government would be necessary.
The archers fervently hope that they will get more opportunities to participate in international championships and training camps. This year, the Red-and-White archery team could only take part in one international championships in the Netherlands in midyear and a three-week training camp in South Korea in September.
“In archery, a competitive mindset determines everything. The more competitions archers participate in, the stronger is their mind in facing strong opponents and pressure from competition and the spectators. Without a strong mind, concentration will not be optimal and this will lead to bad results,” Hendra said.
Runner up
The two archery golds contributed to Indonesia keeping the runner-up position in the 2019 SEA Games’ overall medal tally. On Sunday, Indonesia won 15 golds, 12 silvers and 21 bronzes. Other than from archery, Indonesia also won gold in athletics, bowling, waterski-ing, surfing, rowing, shooting and traditional boat race.
However, Indonesia’s runner-up position is not yet safe as Vietnam follows closely behind with 65 golds, 59 silvers and 78 bronzes.
In total, Indonesian athletes have collected 65 golds, 62 silvers and 79 bronzes. This has surpassed the revised target of winning 60 golds. However, Indonesia’s runner-up position is not yet safe as Vietnam follows closely behind with 65 golds, 59 silvers and 78 bronzes.
Jakarta State University School of Sport Sciences vice dean Mustara Musa, who is managing Indonesia’s athletics team at the 2019 SEA Games, said that Indonesia should still watch out and not be complacent with its runner-up position. Mustara said that a majority of Indonesia’s golds were from nonmeasurable and non-Olympic sports.
Of the several Olympic sports with plenty of medals, such as athletics, swimming, gymnastics and shooting, Indonesia put on a good performance only in shooting.