VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Minister of Youth and Sports, Zainudin Amali asked stakeholders regarding the planning of organizing recreational sports for 2021 to be completed and agreed upon by the end of this year. This was stated by Minister Zainudin Amali in a stakeholder coordination meeting of recreational sports organizers, which was held virtually in Jakarta, Monday (26/10). In a written statement quoted by Antara in Jakarta on Tuesday (27/1), he said that recreational sports must be prepared to support sports tourism, because this has become the theme of the National Sports Day and has been followed up by the MoU with the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy.

Minister Zainudin Amali further explained that the plan must refer to the 37th National Sports Day theme, namely sport tourism. Sport tourism, according to Minister Amali, must be improved and developed because it is believed to be able to increase the bargaining power of Indonesian tourism in the global market industry. Through the sport tourism, it can also provide a multiplier effect or multiple economic impacts by utilizing and developing natural potential and the creative economy.

The Indonesian basketball national team will continue the second round match of the International Basketball Federation -FIBA Asia Cup 2021 Qualification in Manama, Bahrain in November. Advance qualification will initially take place in two countries. The Indonesian national team who are members of Group A are scheduled to visit Thailand on November 27, and South Korea three days later. However, due to the threat of the Covid-19 pandemic, FIBA decided that all matches in the remaining 2021 Asia Cup Qualification window will be played in a bubble format only in the three host cities. The three cities are Manama (Bahrain), Doha (Qatar), and Amman (Jordan).

As quoted by Antara from the FIBA website, the decision to play the game in a bubble format in three cities was taken because the Executive Committee along with the Medical Commission and the FIBA Competition Commission considered the health and safety of players, coaches and officials during the epidemic. With this bubble pattern, there will be no home-away formats in the next two windows scheduled for November 2020 and February 2021.

The Indonesian women's team won the runner-up position in the Asian Cup online chess championship after losing to the first seed India 2-6 (1-3 and 1-3) in the final round on Sunday (25/10). According to the captain who did not play the Indonesian team, Kristianus Liem, India, which fielded two chess players with International Master (IM) titles and two chess players with the title of Women's Grand Master (WGM), wa indeed superior to the Indonesian team that relied on IM Irine Kharisma Sukandar and IM Medina Warda Aulia. He said, only Irene at table one was able to record one draw and one win over WGM Vaishali R. While Medina who was in absolute superiority in the first party made a blunder and eventually lost 0-2. Kristianus saw that Indian chess players already have the top level of play in Asia and even in the world. Even though they failed to win the title, the Indonesian women's chess team has far exceeded the target of the Indonesian Chess Federation Board which only hoped that Irine and friends would qualify for the quarter-finals. The same target is also imposed on the men's team which stopped in the last eight after being beaten by Australia.

Another impressive achievement was recorded by the E-sports team from Indonesia, namely Bigetron Red Aliens - BTR RA, which was officially crowned as the champion of the Southeast Asia region of the PUBG Mobile Pro League (PMPL) SEA Finals Season 2 tournament. The BTR RA victory eliminates the top position previously occupied by Yoodo Gank, the team from Malaysia, which won the PMPL SEA Finals Season 1. As quoted from Antara News Agency, Monday (26/10), one of the BTR RA members, Luxxy in his official statement said that the final match which took place on 23-25 October, competed for 15 rounds and was marked by fierce battles. Each team was very ambitious to be able to fight for the top position and four tickets to qualify for the PUBG Mobile Global Championship 2020 round.

For this success, the BTR RA team from Indonesia was entitled to win the grand prize worth US $30,000 or Rp450 million. Meanwhile, the second place was also occupied by a team from Indonesia, namely Aerowolf LIMAX, which is the first time participating in this competition. Aerowolf LIMAX received a prize worth US $20,000 or (Rp293 million), while the third place was Secret Jin, a team from Thailand who was entitled to a prize worth of US $15,000 or (Rp219 million).