UNAIR NEWS – Faculty of Social and Political Sciences Universitas Airlangga continues to make wonderful achievements through its talented students. Raymond Arya Krisna Kalalo, a Communication student, successfully won three categories in the taekwondo competition in 2022. He won first place in the 2022 Senior Male Individual Recognized Poomsae of Taekwondo Provincial Championship for students in East Java and the 2022 Senior Pair Recognized Poomsae of Taekwondo Provincial Championship for students in East Java. He also won third place in the 2022 Senior Male Individual Freestyle Poomsae of Taekwondo National Championship Indonesia Cadet-Junior-Senior.
To UNAIR NEWS, Raymond shared his thoughts on winning the championships on Thursday, December 29, 2022. The champion title was no longer the main objective, especially in the provincial competition.
“To be frank, I’m feeling just fine with the achievement at the provincial level. I’ve been delegating to the province for quite some time and have entered the National Training Center (Pelatnas) twice. Therefore, I don’t focus on being the champion. To win or to lose, I’m grateful for the result. However, it might change in different events, like Provincial Sports Week (Porprov), National Sports Week (PON), or SEA Games,” he said.
The most interesting part was not the result but the effort behind it. The preparation for the national championship really tested his skills. Plus, it was his first experience joining the freestyle category.
“It’s my first time in the category of an official National Championship. I had more personal preparations because the training program was different from the other team members. I spent the first couple of weeks at the Regional Training Center (Puslatda) Sidoarjo, one and a half weeks in Surabaya, and the rest were spent in Pamekasan, Madura,” he said.
Furthermore, Raymond felt that training and studying were other challenges. Not to mention that the championship was held during finals test week.
“The training session and studying coincide. Although I got the dispensation, I still have to finish my final tests on time. It’s different from previous competitions where I got to request postponement of deadlines. However, most final tasks were done in groups with regular deadlines. I had to ask my coach to stay up late to finish my tasks,” he said.
Especially when the competition day clashed with the final task submission. He had to manage his focus on competition and responsibility.
“It was harder when the finals deadline clashed with the competition in Banten. I didn’t even think about the match, I thought about the final test questions. I sat in the auditorium on my laptop and did the final test. When it was my friends’ turn, I stopped working and supported them. After that, I got back to the laptop,” Raymond said.
In the end, he shared some messages and hopes for Universitas Airlangga. He hoped that UNAIR will make more achievements in sports. “Hopefully, UNAIR will give more attention and support to the student-athletes from every sport. Because we’ve got a lot to sacrifice our time to make achievements in sports field,” he ended.
Author: Fredrick Binsar Gamaliel M
Editor: Nuri Hermawan
