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TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Chairperson of the Indonesian Federation for Sport Climbing (FPTI) Yenny Wahid announced that the federation will send 18 young athletes to compete in the 2025 SEA Games in Thailand this December. The team aims to bring home three gold medals from the biennial event among Southeast Asian nations.Yenny said the athletes, comprising nine men and nine women, will compete in three categories: speed, lead, and boulder.“For the SEA Games, God willing, we can achieve three gold medals in the men’s and women’s speed and lead categories. That is our target, and hopefully we can make it happen,” she told Tempo in an exclusive interview at the FPTI office in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, on Thursday, October 23, 2025.She added that FPTI will not send top-tier Olympians out of respect for competitors from other countries. Among the 18 athletes, only one senior climber (Alfian Muhammad Fajri) will join the contingent, while elite climbers such as Veddriq Leonardo and Kiromal Katibin will sit out this tournament.“Even with our young athletes, we remain the strongest,” Yenny asserted.While targeting three gold medals, Yenny, the daughter of the late fourth Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid, or Gus Dur, chose not to specify potential silver or bronze medal counts.“Gold is always our target. But based on these young athletes’ performance, if not silver, they should still make it to the podium,” she said confidently.The 49-year-old sports leader remains optimistic about Indonesia’s dominance in the speed category. “If there are no major mistakes or bad luck, we should be able to win gold in both the men’s and women’s speed events,” she added.Head Coach of the FPTI national team, Muhammad Rizali Umarella, said national training began on October 1 and will run until the team’s departure in December. “The training camp for the SEA Games will last three months,” he said on Thursday, October 23.According to FPTI’s Head of Talent Development, training sessions are being held in two locations: at Santika Hotel in Kota Harapan Indah, Bekasi, West Java, for speed training, and at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium complex in Jakarta for lead and boulder practice.Earlier, Minister of Youth and Sports Erick Thohir said all sports federations would be called in to present their medal targets for the SEA Games.“The budget has been set, so the targets must also be clear,” Erick told reporters in Senayan, Jakarta, on Tuesday, October 21.He added that Indonesia needs to secure between 87 and 90 gold medals to maintain third place in the regional competition, which will run from December 9 to 20.Erick previously noted that around 700–800 Indonesian athletes across various disciplines will compete in the SEA Games 2025, supported by a budget of around Rp60 billion.Editor’s Choice: Indonesia U-23 Coach Seeks Strong Opponent for November FIFA MatchdayClick here to get the latest news updates from Tempo on Google News
