Indonesian old hands shine in Asian track and field c'ship<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian old hands scored an admirable feat
\nand eluded their much stronger juniors when they scooped up gold
\nmedals galore to finish fifth in the 9th Asian Veteran Track and
\nField Championships in Seoul recently.<\/p>\n
Seoul's Olympic Stadium saw Indonesian veterans marching with
\npride during Sunday's closing ceremony for collecting 19 golds,
\n13 silvers and 14 bronzes after four days of competition which
\nfeatured 1,100 athletes.<\/p>\n
Japan topped the medal standings with 99 golds, ahead of
\nTaiwan (39), host South Korea (34) and India (23).<\/p>\n
The spokesman for the Association of Indonesian Veteran
\nAthletes, Yayik Murdopo, told Antara yesterday the Indonesians,
\nmostly over 50 years old, stole the limelight when two of them
\nwon three golds each.<\/p>\n
Emmy Hutapea, a 71-year-old grandma, won her gold medals in
\nthe 400-meter, 800m and 1,500m races. Her teammate, Wijayantri
\nSuhardi, a 54-year-old throw specialist, added another golden hat
\ntrick when she won the javelin, discus and shot put events.<\/p>\n
A Surakarta, Central Java native, Wijayantri beat her own
\nAsian best of 10.11 meters by 11 centimeters en route to her
\ntriumph in shot put event. She continued her record-breaking
\nstreak in discus with a throw of 26.12m, surpassing Malaysian
\nJane Paripuranam's benchmark of 25.92m.<\/p>\n
Indonesia's brilliant showing continued when 66-year-old
\nTineke Harahap collected two golds in record-breaking times. She
\nclocked 16.95 seconds in the 100m dash to outshine Indian Rose
\nLamech's best by 1.35 seconds. Harahap of Jakarta then shaved
\n3.19 seconds off the 200m old mark of 40.40 seconds set by Ruei
\nYuen Hsiew of Taiwan.<\/p>\n
The other Indonesian record breaker was men's javelin thrower
\nAbdul Karim Amrullah. The 55-year-old man threw 46.72m to beat
\nthe old mark of 42.18m jointly held by Govindram of India and
\nMinoru Kamishima of Japan.<\/p>\n
Indonesia also garnered its gold medals from men's 200m runner
\nand discus thrower Leentje Sigat, Maria Herman in the over-55
\nwomen's javelin and Hilde Sinurat in the over-65 women's discus.
\nEnny Sihombing, Rosmanizar, Niek Suwondo, Amis Asrin and Kafson
\nSianipar brought home golds for the country as well. The
\nIndonesian women's runners sealed their commendable performances
\nwith a gold in the 4 X 100m relay in the 60-year-old age group.
\n(amd)<\/p>",
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