The Indonesian men's beach volleyball team beat Thailand in the XXXI Sea Games in Hanoi, Vietnam, and won the gold medal. Indonesia had Mohammad Ashfiya/Ade Chandra Rachmawan and Rendy Verdian Licardo/Gilang Ramadhan, who collected 240 points. Interestingly, the winning team has a student of the Undergraduate Sports Coaching Education study program, Faculty of Sports Science, UNY, namely Gilang Ramadhan.

"I won first place at Popnas, beginning my national achievement. At this event, it is the first time that beach volleyball has been included in student multi-events, and I have succeeded in making history," he said Friday (27/5) at UNY.

Gilang decided to move to Yogyakarta to pursue his dream of beach volleyball and study at SMAN 4 Yogyakarta, which has a special class for sports. In addition, Gilang also trains at the Ganevo club. The club has established a reputation for mentoring many successful beach volleyball players at regional, national, and international levels.

During high school, Gilang participated in the selection of beach volleyball players for the PON championship in West Java and managed to qualify for the team and paired with senior Ade Candra. Gilang's career is getting brighter after being called to the Beach Volleyball Senior National Team without a selection. He has won the national circuit 3 times, so he has been called to participate in training at the National Training Center until now.

This XXXI Vietnam Sea Games is the second time that Gilang has participated in the Sea Games. The Indonesian team maintained the gold medal tradition for this beach volleyball branch. According to him, the preparation for this year's Sea Games is a little different because there is a selection to participate in the Sea Games and Asian Games. Although pessimistic at first, with experience and mental maturity, Gilang was able to join the national team squad again. Gilang and his team carried out the training center in 2 months.

After arriving in Vietnam, the Indonesian team prepared themselves for the match. The solid Thai team is in the same group as Indonesia. In the inaugural match, the Gilang team lost 2-1 to Thailand finally, a golden match was held, and the Indonesian team won 2-1. Match after match continued until they reached the final round and met again with Thailand. Because they already knew their weaknesses, the Indonesian team finally used the previously designed strategy. As a result, the Indonesian team won 21-14 and 21-16, and Indonesia won the Vietnam Sea Games.

Vice Dean for Student Affairs and Alumni of the Faculty of Sports Science, UNY, Dr. Guntur, M.Pd was happy with this achievement. "Gold medalist at the Sea Games will be awarded according to the UNY Rector's regulation no. 6 of 2020. Gold medalist will earn Recognition of Past Learning through equivalence/recognized learning achievement (CP) in the form of thesis-free," said Guntur. Hopefully, this award will give a motivational impact on other UNY students to be active in practicing and studying so that they can follow this success during their studies. (Dedy, Tj. Lak)