China, Australia share archery pride
China, Australia share archery pride
JAKARTA (JP): China and Australia maintained their formidable
grip on victory to share the laurels in the national archery
championships, after weathering challenges from Indonesian
rivals.
Indonesia's number two, Gatot Ariyanto, continued his
commendable showing when the New Olympic Round men's individual
competition resumed yesterday. Gatot, who upset top seed Jackson
Fear of Australia on Friday, produced another giant-killing win
by ousting Australian Matt Gray in the semifinals.
Gatot, however, ran out of steam against the blistering
performance of China's Fu Shengiun. The Chinese, who upset
compatriot Sun Wei in the other semifinal, outclassed plucky
Gatot 108-101 in the final round.
Gray made amends for his failure in the semifinals with a
convincing 112-105 win over second seed Sun in the third-place
playoff.
Despite the loss, Gatot, who represents East Java in the
tournament, took the gold medal. Foreign athletes from China,
Australia and Singapore joined the tournament as non-competitors.
The national championships serve as a warm-up event for the 38th
World Championships here in August.
National number one Hendra Setijawan of East Java earned the
silver, despite his sixth-place finish. East Java completed a
clean sweep as Haryono scored the national best third.
Fear led an Australian trio to upset China in the team event.
Australia combined a score of 270 to surpass China by just two
points.
Gatot teamed up with Hendra and Haryono to finish third with a
242-207 thrashing of Lampung.
Organizers of the world championships, the first ever to be
held in Indonesia, announced yesterday that 315 men's and women's
archers from 52 countries have confirmed their entry in the
coming world archery event.
The Aug. 1- Aug. 6 world meet will introduce the compound
event, a new discipline which uses special tools to speed up the
projectiles.
President Soeharto is expected to officially open the event,
which is to be followed by a congress held by the world archery
governing body FITA. (amd)