Arif adds to host team lead in Indonesia Open
Arif adds to host team lead in Indonesia Open
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesian karate hopeful Arif Taufan Syamsudin improved his
Asian Games hopes with a win at the Indonesia Open as the host
team continued its medal quest domination on Wednesday.
Arif, who is a member of the Buffalo team, overcame Dean Bowen
of Australia 14-6 in the final of the 60kg men's kumite at the
Bung Karno Indoor Tennis Hall to contribute one of four golds
that Indonesia reaped on the penultimate day of the competition.
Other countries joining the winners list were Malaysia with
two golds, Australia with two and Saudi Arabia with one.
The win should provide Arif with optimism ahead of the 2002
Asian Games, which will be held in South Korea in October.
However, he said that he would need to compete in a few more
internationals to further test his skills.
"The Open is very useful for me in gauging my skills. Although
I won, I found out I still have weaknesses," Arif told a press
conference.
Coach Willem Mantiri said that Arif, and his other five
teammates currently participating in a training camp, would have
overseas tryouts in Turkey and Australia before their departure
to Korea.
"Arif has already equipped himself with an explosive array of
weapons but he has yet to be able to bring his maneuvers to such
a stage that they become punishing," he said.
The other three Indonesian gold medalists were Telly M., and
Tiger team members Aswan Ali and Flenty Enoch.
Telly beat Adora Aquino of the Philippines 4-1 in the final of
48kg women's kumite. Flenti and Aswan triumphed in the individual
kata event, the former outplaying Yanisa T. of Thailand 5-0 and
the latter beating fellow Indonesian Ellias Tande of the Buffalo
team 5-0.
Indonesia could have added more golds in the other four
events, but Anna Juwita in the 53kg women's kumite, Wawang
Nurrasyid in the 55kg men's kumite, Yan Pieter in the 70kg men's
kumite and Hasan Basri in the 65kg men's kumite lost their final
contests.
Indonesia led the standings with seven golds, followed by
Malaysia with three golds.
The other two golds for Malaysia on the day were contributed
by Sri Rajarajeswari and R. Puvaneswara.
Australia won its two golds courtesy of Todd Usher and Hani
Zahra, while Modhash Shamrani was the only gold winner for Saudi
Arabia.