Jakarta, Aug. 26 -- Indonesia's four-gold target at the 2026 Asian Games may look modest beside its seven-gold haul in Hangzhou. But the smaller number conceals a larger question: Can Indonesia build champions beyond the medals it has already lost?

Indonesia will send 432 athletes across 35 sports to Aichi-Nagoya, where competition will be fierce. The team's official target is at least four gold medals.

That target is not simply a retreat from Hangzhou. Indonesia won seven golds there, but three gold-medal events from that campaign are no longer on the Aichi-Nagoya program.

The missing events change the arithmetic. They should not, however, determine the ambition.

China, Japan, South Korea, India, Uzbekistan and Iran remain formidable...