Indonesian Archery Team Ends International Tour in Preparation for the 2025 SEA Games in Thailand

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The Indonesian archery team will conclude their international tour by competing in the 2025 World Archery Championship in Gwangju, South Korea, from September 5 to 12. This series of tournaments this year is part of the preparation for the 2025 SEA Games in Thailand and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

A total of 12 Indonesian archers along with five coaches and one official have arrived in Gwangju since Wednesday (3/9/2025) to compete in the 2025 World Archery Championship. This tournament is the final series of the World Championship in 2025 and also serves as the concluding event in the series of tournaments in preparation for the 2025 SEA Games in Thailand.

"The athletes are in good condition, with no weather or food issues, and they are all ready to compete. The compound team has been training on the competition field since today, while the recurve team is still on the training field," said Abdul Razak, Deputy Chairman II for Development and Achievement of the Indonesian Archery Association (PB Perpani), who accompanied them in Gwangju, when contacted from Jakarta.

Of the 12 athletes competing in Gwangju, six are compound archers and six are recurve archers. This year, athletes from these two divisions are competing in a total of three international events.

At the World Championships, we will again test our training results while also monitoring our opponents and mapping out the competition for the SEA Games.

The recurve team will begin by competing in the World Cup series in Florida, USA, in April 2025. Then, the compound and recurve teams will compete together in the Asia Cup in Singapore in June. A month later, the compound team will compete again in the World Cup in Madrid, Spain.

The compound team's best result in Madrid was fourth place in the women's team event. In the semifinals, Yurike Nina Bonita Pereira, Ratih Zilizati Fadhly, and Nurisa Dian Ashrifah were defeated by India, which ultimately won the title.

Meanwhile, at the Asian Cup, the compound team took home two bronze medals through Yurike Nina in the women's individual event. Another bronze medal was won by Prima Wisnu Wardhana and Nurisa Dian Ashrifah in the mixed team event.

At the same event, the recurve team won two gold medals through the women's team, consisting of Diananda Choirunisa, Ayu Mareta Dyasari, and Rezza Octavia. Another gold medal went to the mixed team, consisting of Ayu Mareta and Arif Dwi Pangestu. Diananda also won a silver medal in the women's individual category.

At the Florida World Cup, the recurve team's best result was eighth place in the mixed team category, featuring Diananda and Alviyanto Bagas Prastyadi. Riau's Ega Agata Salsabilla, Bagas, and Gusti Gazli achieved a similar result in the men's team category.

This positive trend serves as a valuable asset for the Indonesian team in facing the SEA Games in Thailand 2025. Moreover, the results also provide a foundation for looking ahead to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.

"At the World Championship, we will again test the results of our training while also monitoring our opponents and mapping out the competition for the SEA Games. Our target is certainly to strive as much as possible because there are also significant points on offer, which will be useful for future Olympic qualifications," said Abdul Razak.

In the Southeast Asian arena, Razak stated that the coaching team will specifically monitor Malaysia, which could become one of the competitors in the SEA Games. Additionally, they will also assess the capabilities of Vietnam, which is competing again for the first time this year.

After the World Championship in Gwangju, the series of preparation tournaments for this year will also come to an end. This is because there are no more series of world championships to participate in. According to Razak, after the international tour, the athletes will focus on refining their preparations through training based on the evaluation of the tournaments.

The Chairman of the PB Perpani, Arsjad Rasjid, in a video uploaded to the official social media account of the federation, revealed that extensive preparations have been made because Indonesia's archery team has high targets for the 2025 SEA Games in Thailand. "This event is the final series of the 2025 World Championship, which serves as a momentum for the Indonesian archery team to prepare for the 2025 SEA Games in Thailand, where Indonesia's archery is targeted to become the overall champion at the event," said Arsjad.

Indonesia carved a sweet story in the archery sport at the 2021 SEA Games in Vietnam. At that time, Indonesia emerged as the overall champion. However, at the 2023 SEA Games in Cambodia, archery was not contested, preventing the athletes from repeating that achievement.

Archery will return to the 2025 SEA Games in Thailand. Extensive preparations are also underway for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, which will mark the debut of the compound discipline. Compound will be contested for the first time at the Olympics through the mixed team event.

This has given rise to new hopes and goals for compound athletes in Indonesia. Multi-sport competitions are no longer confined to Asia. They have the opportunity to compete on the global stage through the Olympics.