Diva Renatta Jayadi Ready to Jump Higher

Indonesian pole vaulter, Diva Renatta Jayadi, marked her first two international events this year with a gold medal and a national record. This achievement strengthens Diva's determination to keep vaulting higher in pursuit of the Olympic stage.

At the 2025 Taiwan International Indoor Pole Vault Meet at Caotun Vocational High School Gym, Nantou, on March 26, 2025, Diva successfully recorded a jump of 4.00 meters. This achievement matches the national indoor pole vault record held by Desi Margawati, which was set in 2009.

Four days later, Diva set another national record by jumping 4.30 meters at the 2025 Nantou International Pole Vault Invitational Meet, held at Sun Moon Lake. The 23-year-old athlete broke her own national record, which she had achieved at the 2024 Aceh-North Sumatra National Sports Week (PON) with a mark of 4.20 meters.

Thanks to her achievement of reaching 4.30 meters, Diva secured a gold medal in the event. "I actually didn't expect to be able to jump that high, even though I could during practice. But practice and competition are different, so there was some doubt about whether I could reach that height," said Diva on Thursday (3/4/2025).

Although initially hesitant, Diva still tried to bring out her best abilities. Moreover, the athlete born on January 24, 2002, has a target to break her own record. In addition, she also observed that her competitors continued to perform at their best despite the cold, foggy, and windy competition conditions.

According to Diva, the competition conditions were almost identical to the situation at the national athletics training center in Pangalengan, West Java. As a result, Diva did not need much adaptation. This also strengthened Diva's confidence to attempt jumping higher.

"During practice, sometimes it feels uncomfortable, the technique doesn't quite work. Yesterday, I thought I should just give it a try, take the risk, after all, I’m confident that I’m used to cold and foggy weather, it should be my advantage," said Diva.

Diva said that the achievement in Taiwan was the result of intensive training at the national athletic training center since November or after the 2024 Aceh-North Sumatra PON. The daughter of former national hurdler, Dedeh Erawati, and national pole vaulter, Nunung Jayadi, underwent long-term preparation for the 2025 Thailand SEA Games and the 2026 Nagoya Asian Games.

I want to be the first female athlete to qualify for the Olympics through the qualifying route.

After debuting at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games, Diva hopes to be able to appear again at the largest multi-sport event in Asia. This desire maintains Diva's spirit and motivation to continue sharpening her jumping record.

Diva wants to jump higher, sharpen her own record, to break the Asian Games limit and eventually break the Olympic limit. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, the limit or limit set for women's pole vaulters is 4.73 meters.

"I want to be the first female athlete to qualify for the Olympics through the qualification route," said the athlete who competed in the 2018 Buenos Aires Youth Olympics. At that time, she qualified after winning a gold medal in the Asian zone Youth Olympics qualification in Bangkok, Thailand with a jump of 3.60 meters.

Several female athletes who competed in the Olympics, including Diva's mother, Dedeh Erawati, Alvin Tehupeiory, and Maria Londa, qualified via the wildcard route. This ticket used the Universality Places quota, a route developed by the International Olympic Committee to help ensure the participation of Olympic athletes from countries that, through the normal qualification route, have little or no representation at the Games.

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Indonesia's only athletic representative, Lalu Muhammad Zohri, also appeared after getting a wildcard quota. The sprinter from Lombok, East Nusa Tenggara, failed to break through the specified limit to qualify via the qualification route. This is different from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics when Zohri qualified after breaking through the 100-meter running limit.

In Taiwan, besides Diva, men's pole vaulter Idan Fauzan Richsan also successfully sharpened the national record. With a jump of 5.22 meters at the 2025 Taiwan International Indoor Pole Vault Meet, Idan broke his own record of 5.20 meters set in 2024.

At the 2025 Nantou International Pole Vault Invitational Meet, Idan failed to bring home a medal like Diva. Idan had to be satisfied with a jump record of 5.15 meters.

Previously, the record was also measured by other Indonesian athletes in the race walking discipline at the 2025 Asian Race Walking Championships 20 kilometers in Nomi, Ishikawa, Japan, on March 16. Indonesian race walker, Hendro Yap, sharpened the national record with a time of 2 hours 49 minutes 37 seconds when competing in the 35 km race walking category.

The best race walker from Indonesia and Southeast Asia surpassed the previous national record of 2 hours 53 minutes 39 seconds which he set at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023. Three other athletes competing in the 20 km race walk also managed to record personal best records.

Halida Ulfah recorded a time of 1 hour 50 minutes 23 seconds, improving her previous record of 1 hour 51 minutes 44 seconds. Meanwhile, Bayu Prasetyo finished with a time of 1 hour 30 minutes 6 seconds, improving from 1 hour 36 minutes 23 seconds. Meanwhile, Angga Septiyan Prasetyo was also seven minutes faster with a time of 1 hour 30 minutes 4 seconds, faster than his previous personal record of 1 hour 37 seconds 47 minutes.

"This achievement shows very positive progress for the Indonesian race walking team at the international level. Hopefully this result will be a driving force for the athletes towards the 2025 SEA Games Thailand," said Secretary General of the Indonesian Athletics Association (PB PASI) Tigor Tanjung.