Gelora Bung Karno Sports Complex

A view of Jakarta's Bung Karno Sports Complex from the 46th floor of Wisma 46

Gelora Bung Karno Sports Complex, named Senayan Sports Complex from 1984 to 2001, is a sports complex located in Senayan, Central Jakarta, Indonesia. The sports complex host main stadium with capacity of 88,000 spectators, athletic tracks, football fields, aquatics stadium, tennis courts (indoor and outdoor), hockey, baseball and archery fields, and several indoor gymnasiums. It is named after Sukarno, Indonesia's first President. It is the largest and one of the oldest sport complex in Jakarta, and also one of the largest in Indonesia and Southeast Asia. The Gelora Bung Karno Stadium is the main building within this sports complex. The word Gelora itself is abbreviations of Gelanggang Olahraga which means "Sport Arena", and it also means "vigorous" (like the flame or ocean wave) in Indonesian.

Other than hosting numbers of sports facilities, the Senayan sports complex is also a popular place for Jakartans to do physical exercises; jogging, bicycling, aerobics and calisthenics especially during weekend.

History

The sports complex was built to host fourth Asian Games in 1962. Construction began on the stadium on February 8, 1960 and finished on July 21, 1962. Its construction was partially funded through a special loan from the Soviet Union. The stadium's original capacity of 100,800 people was reduced to 88,083 as a result of renovations for the 2007 Asian Cup.

Sports complex

The Gelora Bung Karno Sports Complex includes:

• Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, a main stadium with capacity 88,000. Mostly used for football matches as well as opening ceremonies
• Madya Stadium, a secondary open stadium with a capacity of 20,000 mostly for athletics track and field numbers
• Istora Senayan, an indoor gymnasium with a capacity of 8,000, can be used as badminton, volleyball or basketball court
• Tennis Indoor Senayan, an open air tennis stadium with a capacity of 5,000
• An aquatics arena with a capacity of 8,000
• An indoor tennis stadium
• Several outdoor tennis courts
• A smaller indoor gymnasium with a capacity of 3,500, usually used for basketball match
• Several small indoor multi-purpose gymnasiums, it can be used as archery, wrestling, karate, silat and other martial arts venue.
• A softball field with an unknown capacity
• An archery field
• A hockey field
• Lapangan A, B and C, several open air football training field, usually used by Indonesian national football team
• Senayan golf course

Other buildings

• Al Bina mosque
• Radio-controlled car circuit
• Central office of National Sports Committee of Indonesia

Originally the sports complex covers much larger area than it is today, several land plots were developed into non-sport facilities. Northern parts were developed into political venues; Indonesian parliament complex (DPR/MPR Building). Today the buildings around Gelora Bung Karno Sport Complex in Senayan area are:

• Jakarta Convention Center
• DPR/MPR Building
• TVRI central office
• Ministry of Youth and Sports of Indonesia central office
• Ministry of Forestry of Indonesia central office
• Hotel Sultan Jakarta (ex Hilton Hotel Jakarta)
• Mulia Hotel
• Athlete Century Park Hotel
• Ratu Plaza
• Plaza Senayan
• Senayan City
• FX Sudirman

Sport events

The Bung Karno Stadium hosted the 2007 Asian Cup Final between Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Other competitions held there are several Tiger Cup finals and domestic cup finals. The Istora Senayan hosted numbers of Sudirman Cup, Thomas Cup and Uber Cup badminton competitions. The sports complex hosted multi-event sport such as Pekan Olahraga Nasional and Southeast Asian Games. The complex was the host of Pekan Olahraga Nasional for nine times between 1951 to 1996. The complex host Sea Games in 1979, 1987, 1997 and 2011 co-host with Jakabaring Sport City in Palembang.

Gallery

• Istora indonesiaopen.jpg

  Istora Senayan in during Indonesia Open Badminton Championship

External links

• Pusat Pengelolaan Komplek Gelora Bung Karno - Official Website