The Southeast Asian Games start next week on August 19 in Kuala Lumpur and Indonesia is aiming to not just participate but dominate, with President Joko Widodo saying yesterday, “Indonesia, as a big country, wants to become the overall champions”.
The president was speaking at a ceremony that took place on Monday at the Presidential Palace in which he met with many of the 250 Indonesian athletes that are heading to KL soon to represent their homeland at the competition.
But Jokowi didn’t just talk. The president also picked up a ping pong paddle for a quick but epic table tennis match in which he repeatedly went for the power smash.
For the all-star exhibition match, President Jokowi was paired with the Chairman of the Indonesia Asian Games Organizing Committee (INASGOC) Erick Thohir. They faced off against Susi Susanti, one of the most successful badminton players ever, as well as legendary table tennis star Yopie Warsono.
Despite the enormous amount of talent on the other side of the table, the president was served up several smashing opportunities which he took full advantage of.
Where did Jokowi get those mad table tennis skillz? Perhaps from that time he played zero gravity VR ping pong with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg?
https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10102658257287881
Ok, we shouldn’t exaggerate too much since several of his smashes didn’t quite work out, but Jokowi certainly looked like more of a natural at the table tennis table than on the futsal court.
