Debutant breaks down after striking gold

By Budiman Moerdijat

JAKARTA (JP): An Indonesian banking student making her SEA Games debut and with no medal ambitions broke down and sobbed uncontollably when she won her gold-medal match in the taekwondo finweight division yesterday.

Juana Wangsa Putri, from Jakarta, could hardly believe it when the referee awarded her the ninth and diciding point to give her a 5-4 victory over Myanmar's Khin Swe Oo at the Bulungan Sports Hall, South Jakarta.

The 20-year-old sophomore student at Perbanas (the National Banking Institute) ran over to her Korean coach, Oh Ill Nam, who gave her a big hug. The one thousand spectators joined in the celebrations by stamping their feet on the grandstand floor.

"I am proud to win the 19th SEA Games," was all she could say when asked how she felt. She then said she had not started the competition expecting to win. "I was just trying to do my best."

She is now turning her attention to preparing for the World Championships next month in Hong Kong.

Ill Nam added that Juana had had to shed six kilos in the run- up to the Games to make the 43 kilo weight limit for the fin weight division.

Indonesia's defending heavyweight champion, Andri Halim also won gold yesterday, confidently defeating Thailand's Prawes Sattakom 5-3. He clinched his gold medal with two brilliant kicks to Sattakom's head and body.

"I feel relief that I have won the match because I had been under pressure," he said, adding that it had come from both being the defending champion and from representing the host country.

In the other two medal events Indonesia fared less well. Agustina Shanti and Andi Cahyadi contributed two bronze medals, in the female heavyweight and the male finweight respectively.

Agustina was beaten by the eventual gold medalist, Lee Wan Yuen from Malaysia, in the semis, while Andi was also defeated in the semis, by the silver medalist Kumar Sandragasam.

Kumar was defeated by the Philippines' Roberto Cruz in the final match. Cruz has been unbeaten in the male finweight category since the 16th SEA Games in 1991 in Manila, the Philippines.

Prior to yesterday Indonesia had won two taekwondo gold medals. Yolandini Yolanda and Pino Indra Perdana had won the female and male featherweight divisions respectively on Sunday.

Taekwondo offers eight gold medals for both men and women, in eight categories, finweight, flyweight, bantamweight, featherweight, lightweight, welterweight, middleweight and heavyweight.