Jakarta: The Olympic gold medal glory has showered Greysia Polii/Apriyani Rahayu with lucrative rewards including cash, real estate, and free ownership of various businesses.
After receiving a cash bonus of Rp. 5.5 billion (USD $382,908) from the Indonesian government last Friday, they were also rewarded with cash rewards from their own badminton club – PB Jaya Raya and the state government of Jakarta on Saturday morning.
Polii/Rahayu were each rewarded with a housing unit that was worth Rp. 3.3 billion (USD $229,745). While the state government of Jakarta also given them a cash bonus of Rp. 800 million (USD $55,695).
Not only Polii/Rahayu were the recipients of these cash bonuses, but their coaches were also given the cash rewards as a token of appreciation. Eng Hian, the head coach for Polii/Rahayu, was awarded Rp. 200 million in cash (USD $13,923), Chafidz Yusuf – assistant coach, received Rp. 50 million (USD $3480) and Ari Subarkah – physical trainer, also took home Rp. 50 million (USD $3480).
This appreciation event was held at the Rudy Hartono Badminton Building, in South Jakarta. Those who attended the event were the governor of Jakarta – Anies Rasyid Baswedan, President of Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) – Agung Firman Sampurna, and President Director of PT Jaya Real Property Tbk – Trisna Muliadi.
“Even though our heroes are Greysia and Apriyani, however, they couldn’t achieve this by themselves. There are a lot of people involved to help them with their success. There are coaches, psychologists, and nutritionists. Most importantly, for those who did the initial recruitment of talents and conducted the early coaching, the credit should go to PB Jaya Raya,” said Sampurna in his speech.
“In PBSI, we have established good relationships with more than 2000 badminton clubs throughout Indonesia. A famous phrase from Italy said that finding friends is like finding treasure. We invite everybody to collaborate, recruit the best talents, give them the best coaching environment, and produce the best achievements for all of us. Thanks to PB Jaya Raya and the state government of Jakarta for their support to grow the sport of badminton,” added Sampurna.
The President of PT Jaya Real Property Tbk – Trisna Muliadi showed great appreciation for the achievements of Polii/Apriyani who succeeded in continuing the gold medal tradition of Indonesian badminton at the Olympics. This was the fourth gold medal that has been contributed by PB Jaya Raya players.
“We from Jaya Raya are very grateful for the remarkable results achieved by Greysia and Apriyani for being able to continue the tradition of the athletes fostered by Jaya Raya to be able to bring home gold medals from the Olympics. This was the fourth medal won by badminton players who grew up at Jaya Raya starting from Susi Susanti in Barcelona 1992, followed by Candra Wijaya/Tony Gunawan in Sydney 2000. Then Markis Kido/Hendra Setiawan in Beijing 2008 and now from Greysia Polii/Apriyani Rahayu in Tokyo 2020,” said Trisna Muliadi in his speech.
Trisna also did not forget to thank PBSI for giving the opportunity to the players from PB Jaya Raya.
“We also would like to express our deepest gratitude for the help provided by PBSI for badminton players from Jaya Raya. PBSI trusted our players and also given our players many opportunities to make our country proud. If Mr. Ciputra (the founder of PB Jaya Raya who passed away in Singapore on Nov 27, 2019) is still around, he will be very happy. I am sure Markis Kido who left us a few months ago would be proud of the achievement by Greysia and Apriyani as well. It is a great joy from PB Jaya Raya that we can work together and keep sending talents to PBSI,” said Muliadi.
