Bayu wins his seventh PON gold medal

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Palembang

Judo veteran Krisna Bayu won his career-seventh gold in the National Games to give host South Sumatra one of the two golds collected on the second day of competition on Friday.

South Sumatra's second gold was contributed by Catarin Kalalo in the 50-meter immersion fin-swimming, more than making up for her disappointing performance in 50-meter surface event on Thursday.

Jakarta remained at the top of the medal tally with 12 gold medals followed by former PON hosts West Java and North Sumatra, which were emerged as the biggest gold-medal winners on the day, in second and third respectively.

The two teams now have eight golds each but West Java, PON host in 1961, outscored 1951 host North Sumatra by taking three silvers against one.

Both West Java and North Sumatra ended the day's competition, winning four golds apiece.

After winning three golds on Thursday, West Java continued its onslaught in the fin-swimming with another two victories by Nania Gozali and Kevin Angga in the 100 meter women's and men's immersion events.

Ira Purnama Sari won the women's over-78 kilogram event in the judo, while West Java won the other gold in the equestrian.

North Sumatra triumphed at the Pertamina sports hall, striking triple victories in the wushu event, courtesy of Nurdiana, Zainab and Howandi Santoso.

Deny Zulfrendi beat Niki Maretama in the men's over-100 kilogram event in the judo competition to hand the team its other gold.

While West Java and North Sumatra enjoyed their winning moments, South Sumatra had its own to cheer, with local fans coming to the judo venue to watch Bayu win his gold.

Bayu, whose Olympic bid crashed early in Athens, has so far collected seven golds for three different teams in PON in previous games: Central Java, West Java and South Sumatra.

The host made a surprise in the team dual-sheet duration paragliding event by winning the gold on Friday, defeating favorite Jakarta.

In the other venues, Wynne Prakusya of Central Java won over Patricia Soesilo of East Java, 6-3, 6-3, in women's team tennis match to hand Central Java a 3-0 win over East Java in the last match of Group D.

Sony Dwi Kuncoro of East Java lost 17-15, 15-4 to Simon Santoso of Jakarta in men's team badminton match with Jakarta winning over East Java 3-2 in the final match of Group B.

Meanwhile, on second day of the Games the turn-out from the crowd varied significantly depending on the event.

In basketball, volleyball, and judo, spectators packed the stadiums, while in wushu and tennis, the spectators were relatively few.

The aerosport, swimming, waterpolo, equestrian, baseball, badminton, bridge, rowing, golf, soccer, archery, judo, wushu, and tennis competitions will continue on Saturday.