Papua overal champs at nat'l athletics meet<\/p>\n
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Papua emerged as the overall champions with eight gold, two
\nsilver and four bronze medals at the three-day national athletics
\nchampionship that ended here on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The medal collection surpassed overnight leaders East Java,
\nwhich ended in second with seven gold, two silver and seven
\nbronze medals.<\/p>\n
West Java took home 5-5-6 to finish overall third, followed by
\nJakarta with 5-2-4 and defending champion Central Java with 4-9-
\n4.<\/p>\n
About 400 athletes from 30 provinces participated in the
\nchampionships at Madya Stadium in Central Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Aceh, Jambi, South Kalimantan, North Sulawesi and Southeast
\nSulawesi returned home empty-handed from the event, which saw
\nvery few records fall.<\/p>\n
Olivia Sadi of East Nusa Tenggara was only one of two athletes
\nat the championships to break a national record. Her time of four
\nminutes, 19.48 seconds in the 1,500-meter race shattered the old
\nmark of 4:21.50, set by Supriati Sutono in 1997.<\/p>\n
Olivia surprised herself with the performance.<\/p>\n
\"I did not expect to break the national record, although my
\ncoach was optimistic,\" said Olivia, who received a bonus of Rp 15
\nmillion (US$1,500) and motorcycle for the feat.<\/p>\n
In Saturday's finals, Sukari of East Java and Deysie Sumigar
\nof North Sulawesi took the men's and women's 100-meter titles,
\nrespectively.<\/p>\n
Sukari clocked a time of 10.87 seconds to outpace West Java's
\nSubakir, who finished in a time of 10.94 seconds.<\/p>\n
Deysie easily outpaced Supiati of East Nusa Tenggara and Irene
\nT. Yoseph of Jakarta in taking the title. But her time of 11.73
\nseconds was still 0.17 seconds off of Irene's national record of
\n11.56 seconds.<\/p>\n
But that did not take the gloss off Deysie's victory. \"Thank
\nGod I won,\" Deysie beamed.<\/p>\n
The championship, which featured 40 events, also served as a
\nbarometer for national athletes preparing for the upcoming
\nSoutheast Asian (SEA) Games.<\/p>\n
The Indonesian Amateur Athletics Association (PASI) had warned
\nthat subpar performances could result in athletes being expelled
\nfrom the national training center.<\/p>\n
There are currently about 50 athletes training at the national
\ncenter for the SEA Games, but that number is likely to fall after
\nthe championships.<\/p>\n
\"We will announce those athletes who performed poorly and are
\nbeing removed from the national training center on Monday or
\nTuesday,\" PASI official Budi Dharma Sidi said.<\/p>",
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