Failed to be in the Top 10 of PON 2024, KONI Riau General Chairman Apologizes

Illustration.(ANTARA/ARNAS PADDA)

KONI Riau chairman Iskandar Hoesin apologized to the people of Riau for not being able to meet the target of entering the top 10 of PON XXI Aceh-Sumut. KONI Riau has done its best in preparing the contingent for PON XXI.

Riau was only able to rank 12th or dropped 4 ranks or rank 8 at the XX Papua PON in 2021. At this PON, Riau collected a total of 78 medals, consisting of 21 gold medals, 22 silver medals, and 36 bronze medals.

“First, I would like to apologize for not being able to achieve the target of 25 gold medals, and not entering the top 10 of PON XXI Aceh-North Sumatra. This responsibility lies in my hands as the General Chairperson of KONI Riau. But we are still grateful that Alhamdulillah the medals we won did not decrease. In a period of 2.5 years, we maximized our time to prepare the Riau contingent for PON XXI,” said Iskandar, Saturday (21/9).

He explained that the failure to achieve the target of 25 gold medals was because more than half of the 18 leading sports targeted to win gold medals failed to be fulfilled. Among them, weightlifting, bodybuilding, sepak takraw, paramotor, skydiving, rowing, muaythai, barongsai, and kempo.

“None of these nine sports won a gold medal, even though they had targeted a gold medal. Some even did not contribute any medals at all. But this is a maximum struggle. There are also our athletes who won gold medals at every PON, but also failed to win a medal,” he explained.

He also appreciated the sports that did not target gold medals, surprisingly got gold medals. “The water skiing sports won two gold medals. Gymnastics also managed to exceed three gold medals, as well as fencing also exceeded the target of one gold medal. This is a lesson for us in the future in achieving the best achievements,” he said.

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He added that his party was not looking for a scapegoat in the failure of the sports branch in achieving the gold medal target. Because his party also witnessed the sports branch matches targeted for medals. Athletes, coaches and administrators have tried to achieve the target but failed.

“We can see together on the field, how Riau athletes have competed and fought to the maximum, until they sweat. For their struggle, I thank all Riau athletes. Congratulations and success for the achievements that we have achieved together,” he explained.

According to him, there are several leading sports in Riau, which were predicted to win gold medals in the final but failed, and only won silver medals. There are still non-technical factors that make Riau athletes fail to win gold medals, but not so many. For example, kempo and weightlifting.

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“On the last day of the final match, our mainstay sport that was predicted to win gold failed to be achieved. Maybe this is due to non-technical factors, although the coach and manager have protested but failed. This is a form of our struggle, once again we are not looking for a scapegoat for this failure. This is a joint evaluation,” he said.

He said that his party appreciated all parties who had supported the Riau contingent at the 2024 PON, the Riau Provincial Government, the Riau DPRD, the Acting Governor of Riau, the Riau Provincial Secretary, the Riau BUMD, private companies that had helped the Riau contingent, and all the people of Riau, who had prayed for the Riau contingent in achieving achievements.

“Thank you to the Riau Provincial Government and all parties who supported the Riau contingent at PON XXI. The Acting Governor of Riau who was also present in Aceh gave motivation to the athletes, the Regional Secretary SF Hariyanto was also in Medan giving motivation. The Regional Secretary said that if the achievement reaches above 80% of the target, that is the maximum,” he concluded. (Z-6)