JAKARTA, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's rock climbing team is poised to break the world speed climbing record in the upcoming Climbing World Cup in Russia.
"Our athlete recorded a time of 5.33 seconds in our training center, quicker than the quickest time of 5.48 seconds made by Iranian athlete Reza Alipour last year," the Head of the Indonesian Rock Climbing Federation (PB FPTI) Sapto Hardiono said.
The press conference was held prior to the departure of 16 Indonesian rock climbing athletes taking part in Russia and two tournaments in China's Chongqing and Tai'an in May.
Sapto said those international tournaments will be used by Indonesian athletes to try their best before the Asian Games in 2018.
Indonesia has set target of two gold medals. "In the speed category, our toughest competitors were from Iran and China. In the lead and boulder categories, the toughest competitors were teams from Japan and South Korea," he said.
The 2018 Asian Games, themed "Energy of Asia", is scheduled to take place in August in the Indonesian cities of Jakarta and Palembang.