Challenges for Young Indonesian Lifters at World Level

LIMA, WEDNESDAY — Several Indonesian weightlifters who have gained international recognition and even won medals at the Olympics once excelled at the junior level. Now, young Indonesian lifters will be tested and challenged to follow in their footsteps at the 2025 Youth and Junior World Championships.

A total of 11 young lifters from Indonesia will compete in the 2025 World Youth and Junior Championships in Lima, Peru, starting today (30/4/2025). They consist of six male lifters and five female lifters competing in the youth (13-17 years) and junior (15-20 years) categories.

The Secretary General of the Central Board of the Indonesian Weightlifting Association, Djoko Pramono, stated that they do not impose performance targets on the athletes. However, this event serves as a platform for young lifters to test their abilities.

"We do not have a specific target, actually, but from the Ministry of Youth and Sports, we have been given the target to participate in the 2025 Asian Youth Games and the 2026 Olympic Youth Games. Therefore, we are sending some of these young lifters to gain competition experience, as some of them have never participated in international events," said Djoko.

Djoko also stated that this event will provide an opportunity for athletes to showcase their abilities. In addition to preparing for the SEA Games in Thailand in December 2025, they can challenge themselves to follow in the footsteps of their seniors who have previously excelled as junior world champions.

Most of the Olympic weightlifters have previously achieved success in the Junior and Youth World Championships. Eko Yuli Irawan, a four-time Olympic medalist, for instance, was the junior world champion in 2007 in Prague and in 2009 in Bucharest.

The gold medalist of the Paris 2024 Olympics, Rizki Juniansyah, has also been a two-time junior world champion in 2021 in Tashkent and 2022 in Heraklion. From this success, Rizki increasingly demonstrates his potential as a future star.

Rizki even still holds the world record in the junior category for the snatch lifting of 157 kilograms. The record was broken by Rizki when he won the world junior championship in Tashkent.

Like Rizki, the bronze medalist of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Windy Cantika Aisah, has also been a junior world champion in Tashkent and Heraklion. Meanwhile, at the 2019 Junior World Championships in Suva, Windy won a silver medal.

Currently, Windy is still the world record holder in the youth category. She holds the world record for the snatch lift of 86 kg, the clean and jerk of 104 kg, and the total lift of 190 kg.

Tita Nurcahya Melyani (19), a young lifter who will compete in the women's 49-kilogram junior category, expressed her enthusiasm for her debut at the 2025 Junior World Championship. She hopes to achieve the best results, similar to those previously accomplished by Indonesian lifters.

"I have trained to the maximum, having started intensive training since the beginning of the year. I hope to showcase my best performance and achieve good results as well," said Tita.

Eko Yuli hopes that these young athletes can continue to develop consistently, especially given their young age. "Hopefully, they can become the next generation of weightlifting in Indonesia," said Eko.

Tita Nurcahya Melyani (49kg women)

Sarah (59kg women)

Luluk Diana Tri Wijayana (women's 49kg)

Yuda Permana (men's 67kg)

Adesta Putra's First Achievement (81kg for men)

Alvin Saputra (49kg men)

Kevin Andrian Ramadhan (men's 55kg)

Muhammad Rojal Abdillah (55kg men)

Leonard Imanuel Aipassa Suabey (men's 61kg)

Muhammad Angga (73kg men)

Alyamaulida Kartika Pertiwi (women's 81kg)