Aceh wins 1st gold, Rina 4th gold
Moch. N. Kurniawan and Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Palembang
The conflict-torn province of Nangroe Aceh Darussalam won its first gold on Monday at the 16th National Games courtesy of Habli, who triumphed in the fencing competition.
Habli won the gold in the men's individual epee after defeating Andre Senduk of North Sulawesi in the final at the IAIN sports hall.
National archer Rina Dewi Puspitasari, who is representing East Java, made amends for her disappointing run in Athens by getting her fourth gold at the games to help her province collect six golds from archery.
"I'm glad that I helped the team win another gold. This is a team victory," Rina said.
As of 8 p.m. local time on Monday, Jakarta still topped the overall medal standings with a total of 38 golds, followed closely by West Java with 35 golds.
Host province South Sumatra was ranked fifth with 14 golds, but the positions might change with swimming yet to be completed.
Jakarta added two golds to its tally from tennis, four from wushu, one from rollerblading, one from athletics, two from aerosports and one from swimming.
The tennis team from the capital city followed in the winning steps of their badminton team members by chalking up a double victory -- taking both the men's and women's team events.
Sandy Gumulya put in an aggressive performance to beat the experienced Wynne Prakusya 6-4, 6-3 to ensure Jakarta's 2-0 win over Central Java after Wukirasih Sawondari defeated Lavinia Tananta of Central Java 6-1, 6-2 in the first match.
"Both team are more or less equal. It could have gone either way. Sandy played a brilliant game. She was so aggressive and put Wynne under pressure," said former Indonesian tennis queen Yayuk Basuki, who coaches and plays for the Jakarta team.
Their male counterparts followed with a crushing 2-0 win over South Sumatra.
Feby Widhianto lost only a game in his 6-1, 6-0 victory over Ferdy Fauzi, while Nesa Arta eased past Novi Hendri 6-1, 6-4.
West Java collected three golds from canoeing and one apiece from aerosports, cycling and swimming.
In the rowing, Sayadin, in the K-1 category, Asnawair in the C-1, and Tri Noorendah, Kanti Setiawati, Siti Mariam and Royani Rais in the women's K-4, were too strong for their opponents.
There was a dearth of new national records on the opening day of track and field competition.
The only highlight of the day was when Edi Zakaria, who participated in Athens, broke the games old mark in the 110-meter hurdles to earn East Java the gold.
Edi clocked the best time of 14.16 seconds to surpass the old record 14.54 seconds. But he fell short of improving on his own national record of 14.11 that he established in Athens.
Overall, the East Java athletic squad ended the opening day with two golds. South Sumatra also won two. Jakarta, Papua and Riau took the rest.
Meanwhile, Riau's shooters proved prolific, winning three golds, leaving West Java and Central Java to take the remaining two.