Deysi beaten at University Games
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Sidoarjo, East Java
National champion Deysi Sumigar was dealt a blow in the women's 100-meter sprint on the track at the ASEAN University Games as defending champion Thailand began to show its domination here on Tuesday.
Deysi, who won a gold medal in this year's National Games (PON) in Palembang, finished in third place behind Thai duo of Sanrat Nongnuch and Sangwan Jaksunin in the track and field competition at the Gelora Delta Stadium in Sidoarjo, some 20 kilometers south of Surabaya.
Deysi scored a time of 12.29 seconds, far from her PON time of 11.93, while gold medalist Nongnuch registered 11.80 seconds and Jaksunin 11.98 seconds.
"We did not have enough preparation for the ASEAN University Games. We did not enter a specific training phase to improve our speed ahead of the Games," Deysi explained.
"So, it is a good result that I could contribute a medal," she said.
In the men's 100, local sprinter Kurais fared worse, finishing only in fourth with a time of 10.95 seconds. Sompot Suwannarangsri chalked up the best time of 10.66 seconds to contribute another gold to high-flying Thailand.
Thailand was on a rampage in the track and field stadium, grabbing 11 of 18 gold medals on offer on Tuesday.
Indonesian students just managed to salvage three golds through Rini Budiarti in the women's 5,000 meters, Herlince Tagogo in the women's 400 meters, and the men's 4x100 relay.
Rini recorded a time of 18:43.82 to win the 5,000 meters while Herlince ran 55.76 seconds to win the 400 meters. The Indonesian foursome won the relay in 42.09 seconds.
Malaysia joined the gold celebration by winning three while Singapore had to settle for one gold.
Thailand's athletics team manager Tavorn Kamutsri was beaming after his athletes's dominant performance.
"We have trained our student athletes seriously as we wanted to be in peak form ahead of the World University Games," he said. Bangkok will host the world games a week after this event concludes.
Thailand nearly made it 12 gold medals on the day, but they stumbled in the last stage in the men's 4x100 meter relay. They were leading when their third runner dropped the baton before passing it to the anchor.
That allowed the Indonesian team to take over the lead and win the gold.
"Well, we had similar problems in this men's relay previously. I think three times we made the same mistakes," Kamutsri said.
Thailand also triumphed in the tennis competition after winning the finals in the men's and women's team event, at the expense of Indonesia on both occasions.
With a total of 13 gold on Tuesday, Thailand is now leading the standings with a formidable 17 gold, leaving Indonesia in a distant second with only nine golds.
Indonesia added gold at the pencak silat venue courtesy of Wismayanti in the women's singles and Yunanta Candra, Trijanul Wahyudi and Nuryuda Bijak in the men's team.
The home side is expecting to collect more hardware to close the gap on Thailand when pencak silat continues competition on Wednesday in which they have representatives in the finals of all ten events.
However, Thailand will also have its own chance to add more golds to its collection from athletics in which another 15 gold will be on offer while swimming provides eight golds on Wednesday.
The ASEAN University Games features 10 of 11 nations in the region, Myanmar has opted out of the week-long championship, but ASEAN observer East Timor is competing.