Inasgoc calls for more international sports events

With its world class arena, Indonesia can host more international sports events.

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The Organizing Committee of the 2018 Asian Games (INASGOC) asked the organizers of sport branches and the government to continue organizing international championships in every sport event after the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang. Moreover, Indonesia already had world class arenas.

"We want other sports organizers also to be aggressive in holding other international championships because Indonesia already has world class arenas such as those for equestrian, rowing and football," INASGOC Chairman Erick Thohir told a news conference at the Asian Games Media Service Center (MPC) 2018 at the Jakarta Convention Center (JCC) Senayan, here, Saturday.

Erick gave an example that Indonesia will be one of the hosts of the 2023 Basketball World Cup with Japan and the Philippines. "Indonesia has a lot of sports arenas which are no longer maintained well because not many sports championships use them. We have to start learning to hold it," said Erick who also serves as General Chairman of the Indonesian Olympic Committee (KOI).

In addition to the equestrian, rowing and football branches, Erick said Indonesia was also worthy of holding a world championship for athletics and bicycle racing because Indonesia's arenas and stadiums are considered worthy of those events.

"If Indonesia does not often hold international championships, the Indonesian people may forget to queue as they have been used to queuing when attending the Asian Games. The need for organizing sports championships is also expected to make Indonesia able to develop into a competitive nation in the world with peaceful manner," Erick said.

Closing

Erick said that the number of the 2018 Asian Games participants had exceeded the estimates of INASGOC with a total of 17,244 participants and officials in addition to the number of domestic and foreign journalists as many as 11 thousand people. "After the implementation of this event, we will hold the closing ceremony of the Asian Games as a form of celebration of the Asian nation," he said.

However, the closing ceremony is not the end of INASGOC's work before the athletes, officials, and foreign media are confirmed to return to their respective countries.

"We will end all the works on April 2019. We want to success in term of administration because there are many world multi-sports that have issue in this regard," he said.

Meanwhile, tickets for the closing ceremony event of the 18th Asian Games 2018 have already been sold out since Wednesday (August 29), the Indonesia Asian Games 2018 Organizing Committee (INASGOC) said. Tickets are sold at Rp2 million for A Category, Rp1 million for B Category, and Rp450 thousand for C Category.

"I called blibli.com, and they said millions of people have accessed their website," director of media and public relations, Danny Buldansyah, said here on Wednesday evening.

However, he stated that there was still a chance for people to get a ticket if a buyer had failed to pay his order on time. "Ticket buyers have some hours to pay their order. If they fail to do it on time, their tickets will be returned to the system for other people to buy," he noted.

Buldansyah revealed that the increasing demand for the tickets for the closing event was the impact of the success of the opening event. "We provide an alternative to people who come to Gelora Bung Karno to watch the event by setting up a big screen for them at the complex. Fireworks indeed are better to see from outside the stadium," he remarked.

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