Twelve sporting venues in Jakarta have been declared ready for use as the Indonesian capital prepares to co-host the 2018 Asian Games.
This year’s edition of the multi-sport event commences in Jakarta and Palembang on Saturday. Ten of the 12 venues in the capital have been renovated, while the Jakarta International BMX Track (JIBT) and the Jakarta International Baseball Arena (JIBA) are new facilities.
The Jakarta Post newspaper said the renovation cost of the 10 venues was IDR35.8bn (£1.93m/€2.13m/$2.5m). The cost of the JIBT and the JIBA was IDR27bn and IDR39.3bn, respectively.
The redevelopment projects only commenced in November, while the JIBT was developed from January to July this year and the JIBA from April to July. Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan claimed the new BMX and baseball stadia are world class.
He said the new baseball stadium is “the best in Indonesia, even better than the one in Bung Karno Sports Stadium (GBK)”.
With Indonesia having only been assigned the Games in 2014 after the original host, Vietnam, withdrew, organisers have faced a shortened time frame to deliver the event.
Anies added: “Indonesia is out of the ordinary… people are always pessimistic about us, they think we’ll fail… but we don’t.”
Image: Yoshiharu10
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