Lead Indonesia Rock Climbing Momentum Shows Off at Home

When Sukma Lintang Cahyani fell after reaching the 33rd hold on the climbing wall, the journey of the Indonesian lead team consisting of four climbers in the 2025 Rock Climbing World Cup series in Wujiang, China, last week was over. Lintang was the only Indonesian representative in the lead discipline to advance to the semifinals. He returned home as the 18th ranked out of 24 participants.

After achieving her best performance at the World Cup, Lintang immediately set her sights on the next series. The climber from Yogyakarta will compete in front of her home crowd, specifically on Peninsula Island, in the Nusa Dua area of Bali. She has flown to Bali since Wednesday (30/4/2025) to prepare for the competition on the first day, Friday (2/5/2025).

"The course prepared is quite challenging with a combination of technical movements and sections that test endurance, requiring focus and a well-thought-out strategy. Overall, I am quite satisfied with my performance, although there are still some aspects that I need to evaluate and improve for Bali," said Lintang regarding the performance in Wujiang.

In Bali, Lintang carries a different mission from Wujiang. Not only does Lintang aim to perform better, but Lintang also wants to reach the final round, specifically finishing in the top four. This target is higher than Wujiang's, which is to break into the top eight, a target that Lintang has yet to achieve.

However, Lintang is optimistic about her performance in Bali later. Her achievements in Wujiang provide additional motivation for her to demonstrate progress on the "Island of the Gods."

"Moreover, competing in Indonesia feels more special because we will perform in front of supportive audiences. In my opinion, this is a great opportunity to perform better," said Lintang.

Lintang is indeed worthy of confidence. This 20-year-old climber has a good record when participating in international tournaments in Indonesia.

During the 2023 Asian zone qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympics in Jakarta, for instance, Lintang was able to reach the final round. A year earlier, she managed to reach the semifinals in the 2022 World Cup series held in Jakarta.

On the other hand, the Indonesian lead team as a whole has a greater chance in Bali. Because, the number of Indonesian athletes who can compete in this discipline can be more than when participating in other series.

Based on the rules of the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC), each member country has the right to send up to two participants per discipline and gender. In Wujiang, Indonesia exercised this so-called fixed quota by bringing two male and two female athletes.

In fact, there is an additional quota granted to each member country of the federation to participate in the World Cup series. This quota is determined based on the performance of climbers in the previous year's World Cup.

However, in the lead discipline, Indonesia does not have an additional quota for this year's World Cup. Thus, Indonesia can only send two athletes each to the World Cup series, except when hosting.

The host has an additional quota of up to four participants per discipline and gender. As a result, the strength of the Indonesian lead team has tripled to 12 athletes.

"We are sending additional athletes whom we consider the best, both male and female. We are maximizing the quota with the hope that they can also undergo the process to the fullest," said the Head of the Achievement Development Division of the Central Board of the Indonesian Climbing Federation (FPTI), M Rizali Umarella.

"With Lintang already able to enter the top 20 in Wujiang, which is a new and good record, hopefully other climbers can also follow or even surpass it. However, the most important thing is that they all are in the process and making progress," he added.

In addition to climbers who train at the national training center, FPTI also involves athletes who train independently. That includes the male lead climber, Raviandi Ramadhan, who has a good record at the World Cup.

Raviandi is a climber who has made history for Merah-Putih in the Climbing World Cup, which has been held since 1989. He became the first Indonesian climber to reach the final round of the competition during the 2022 World Cup series in Jakarta.

Top climbers from around the world will also participate in the competition in Bali. The gold medalist from the previous two World Cup series in Wujiang and Keqiao, Anraku Sarato (Japan), is registered among the competitors in the Island of the Gods. Likewise, the gold medalist in the combined event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Alberto Gines Lopez (Spain).

This means that, in addition to being an opportunity to show off their abilities, Bali is also a place for Indonesia's lead athletes to gain experience competing with world athletes. An opportunity that athletes cannot always get due to quota limitations. They can also learn valuable lessons from countries that have already developed this discipline.

"In this World Cup, only a few percent of athletes have below average abilities. Only 1-2 people, usually from countries that are just developing this discipline, just trying the competition. The rest are countries that already have a culture of lead and boulder," said the coach of the Indonesian rock climbing team, Hendra Basir.

"For this reason, one cannot take things lightly when competing at this level. From the evaluation in Wujiang yesterday, one of the fundamental issues identified was imperfect movements. This is a mistake that, when at the world level, should not be frequently made, due to the intense competition with very narrow score margins," he added.

However, Hendra also emphasized that the lead team's journey in the World Cup was part of an effort to give them flying hours. Competitive experience is very important to improve their abilities. Moreover, starting this year, the athletes have indeed entered the training phase to be able to compete in international tournaments as part of the program towards the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

At home, Indonesia's lead climbers will show their skills and gain experience and lessons from world-class athletes. Bali can be more than just a proving ground. It is also the beginning of a long journey to the top of the world that is awaited.