After playing in a number of international tournaments this year, Grace Sari Ysidora is now ready to represent the country in the Youth Olympics next month.
“I’ll do my best to win any medal for the country,” Grace, Indonesia’s lone entry in tennis at the Singapore Games, said on Wednesday.
“I feel confident about my chances having participated in a lot of competitions overseas.”
While most local athletes have struggled to find the budget to compete abroad and hone their skills, Grace doesn’t appear to face such a problem, given how often she competes overseas in top-level tournaments.
The 17-year-old has played in 10 international events this year, including all three junior tournaments at the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon.
Her best result this season was a third-round appearance at the Australian Open and a semifinal finish at the ITF Junior Championships in Bangkok in March.
Her most recent tournament was at the Wimbledon junior championships, where she failed to get out of the first round after losing 7-5, 7-5 to 16th-seeded Russian Daria Gavrilova.
Grace, who was born in North Sumatra and comes from a wealthy family, said such an exposure not only has helped her to improve her game but has also strengthened her character.
“Playing overseas has also given me a chance to study the other players, as I’m sure most of them will also participate in the Youth Olympics,” said the world No.39, who has been training in Bandung for the Youth Olympics.
In badminton, men’s singles shuttler Evert Sukamta said he was looking forward to the Singapore Games.
“My focus right now is mental preparation,” said Evert, who qualified for the Youth Olympics after he reached the semifinal of the Asian Youth Under-19 Championships in Kuala Lumpur in April. “ I think my toughest opponents will all come from Asia. I’ve seen them all play so I’m ready.”
Evert is scheduled to play in two more tournaments before the Youth Olympics — the Singapore International Series on July 20-24 and the Indonesia International Challenge in Surabaya on July 27-31.
“The Singapore series will be a good warm-up for me because it’ll help me adjust to the court conditions there,” Evert said.
The Indonesian Olympic Committee (KOI) on Tuesday said it didn’t want to burden the national youth team with medal targets but just wanted them to enjoy the competition. The Indonesian squad is composed of 10 athletes fielded in seven sports.
However, KOI official Djoko Pramono said the country had a better chance at a podium finish in badminton and weightlifting.
He added that a lack of funding has forced the team to have a shorter training camp.
“The budget allotted for the training camp was only around Rp 120 million [$13,000] , so we couldn’t hold a much longer camp,” Djoko said.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian Weightlifting, Powerlifting and Bodybuilding Association (Pabbsi) said its two lifters — Zainuddin and Dewi Safitri — were ready to do the country proud.
Zainuddin, 16, came in as a replacement for Sumaryanto, who had qualified for the Youth Olympics after placing third at the Youth World Championships in Thailand last year.
However, Sumaryanto, 15, did not meet the international weightlifting federation’s minimum age requirement of 16 years old.
Some 3,600 athletes between 14 and 18 years old are expected to compete in the inaugural Youth Olympics on Aug. 14-18.
Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com