Jakarta: Indonesia’s mixed doubles legend, Tontowi Ahmad has raised $825 for the purpose of purchasing more personal protective equipment (PPE) in response to coronavirus pandemic in Indonesia.
The shirt was worn by Ahmad in the 2016 Rio Olympic final as he and partner Liliyana Natsir eventually defeated Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying of Malaysia to win the Olympic gold medal.
Ahmad held the auction through his own Instagram account on Tuesday night.
“Initially, I was invited by former soccer player, Isnan Ali to auction my jersey through his charitable organization. However, after some thought, I decided to auction it on my Instagram Live,” said Ahmad.
“Indeed, the jersey was very meaningful for me. There was a generous person who bought my jersey for USD$825.53, only to tell me to keep the jersey for myself after winning the bid,” added Ahmad.
This was the second time that Ahmad has sold his jersey through auction but was eventually asked to keep it for himself by the winning bidder.
“This had happened twice already. The winning bidder said to me me that ‘I don’t deserve to keep an Olympic champion’s jersey’,” explained Ahmad.
“I also didn’t get it. Regardless, this is for good cause. I want to thank some of my friends, even though they did not take part in the auction but they had made some donations. I am really thankful to them,” said Ahmad.
“I’ll send the money to Isnan Ali, so that we could start buying some PPE and food supplies for those affected by the coronavirus outbreak,” stressed Ahmad.
Not only Tontowi, his fellow teammates at Indonesian national badminton team such as Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo, Praveen Jordan also conducted auctions to raise money for folks impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Praveen auctioned off the jersey he wore when he won the 2020 Denmark Open and 2020 France Open partnering Melati Daeva Oktavianti.
