Can you imagine climbing a 15 meter wall under 10 seconds? That's what Aries and any other speed climbing athletes have to do. But to win gold in an international competition, the average times are under 6 seconds for men and around 7 for women.
Aries Susanti Rahayu got her 'spiderwoman' nickname from netizens after her unexpected gold-medal-winning in International Federation of Sport Climbing World Cup in Chongqing last May, where she won against Elena Timofeeva from Russia, with a record of 7.51 seconds. It's 0.05 seconds away from the world record 7.46 seconds set by Iuliia Kaplina from Russia.
When asked about the nickname she humbly said that all of the speed climbing Indonesia national athletes are also 'spider women'.
This time at 2018 Asian Games, although slower than her Chongqing record, the dubbed spiderwoman won first place by 7.61 seconds against other Indonesian compatriot Puji Lestari, who recorded 7.98 seconds in the final and got a silver.
The 23 year old winning contributed the first gold from Palembang, the Asiad co-host city, and the eight for Indonesia in total. For this gold, she will be rewarded IDR 1,5 billion by Indonesia government.
On the other side, from the men's side, Aspar Jaelolo contributed bronze medal. The gold medal was won by Iranian athlete Reza Alipour.
As August 23 concluded, Indonesia ranks fifth on the medal tally. China, Japan, Korea, and Iran rank 1 until 4 consecutively.
Source: CNN, Tribun News