20 gold medals up for grabs on 1st day of PON
JAKARTA (JP): Equilibrium is expected to mark the start of the 14th National Games' (PON) medal race, with Yogyakarta likely to win the first gold medal.
Today, the first day of competition, 20 gold medals are up for grabs in five sports. Judo and weightlifting will offer six golds apiece, karate five, cycling two and fencing one.
Lampung, the country's traditional weightlifting powerhouse, is unlikely to gain the lion's share of medals today because of strong opposition from West Java, Jakarta and Riau in the women's events. There will be gold medals at stake in the women's 46kg, 50kg, 54kg and 59kg categories, leaving Lampung a likely double gold in the men's 54kg and 59kg.
Judo gold medals are on offer in the men's 86kg, 95kg and over-95kg division, and in the women's 66kg, 72kg and over-72kg classes. All karate events, except the kata demonstration event, will be contested today.
Yogyakarta is aiming to restore its cycling supremacy, which was beleaguered by doping scandals at the last PON event three years ago, by winning the women's 20km individual time trial through national ace rider Nurhayati.
Nurhayati, a Southeast Asian Games gold medalist, will face stiff competition this morning from her sister and teammate Nuraini and Jakarta cyclist Selly Guntari in the road race on Jakarta-Cikampek toll road. The men's 40km individual time trial will be contested this afternoon.
Four cyclists from Yogyakarta failed drug tests at PON in 1993. They lost their three golds, two silvers and a bronze and were banned from competition for six months.
Dubious
In tennis, Jakarta suffered a dubious 1-2 loss to Central Java in their women's team final Group B match. The Jakarta team will avoid favorite Yogyakarta in today's semifinals.
Jakarta, which finished second in the group, will play Group A winner East Java, a 3-0 winner over Yogyakarta which opted to bench world number 29 Yayuk Basuki yesterday.
"The defeat was an intentional plan to reach the final, because everybody knows that Yayuk is unbeatable. We will rely heavily on the doubles team if we meet Yogyakarta in the gold medal match," Jakarta's tennis chief Martina Wijaya said.
The other semifinal will pit Central Java against Yogyakarta.
SEA Games veteran Mimma Chernovita put Jakarta 1-0 ahead when she downed Fed Cup debutante Liza Andriyani 6-4, 6-4. Another Fed Cup team member, Wynne Prakusya, leveled the tie with an easy 6- 1, 6-2 win over Enny Sulistyowati.
Central Java sealed their fate after the sister duo of Wynne and Vania beat a lackluster partnership of Wukirasih Sawondari and Marieke Gunawan 6-2, 6-3.
In the men's competition, Jakarta, led by controversial Benny Wijaya, and its strongest contender, West Java, came closer to their final showdown.
Jakarta blasted its way to a 3-0 rout of Central Java in yesterday's group matches, and will take on North Sulawesi. West Java, boasting Davis Cup players Suwandi and Andrian Raturandang, had little difficulty overcoming Lampung to take on defending champion East Java in the semifinals.
The PON tennis competition started two days before the opening ceremony to let the national Davis Cup team rest before its crucial matches in Taipei from Sept. 20 to Sept. 22. (amd)