East Java leads at national tae kwon do championship
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
East Java took an early lead in the LG Cup national tae kwon do championship after winning two golds here on Thursday while dissatisfaction with match officiating continued to taint the event on Friday.
Ika Dian Fitria, whose opening round win over Meilda Egana prompted vehement protests from her Papuan team, appeared unperturbed and cruised through to 3-0 victory over Afridayani of Central Kalimantan in the final of the women's finweight category.
East Java doubled its gold collection through Joko Arianto with his 7-3 win over Irwansyah of North Sumatra in the men's middleweight class.
Jakarta and Central Java took one apiece thanks to Merry Wandra in the men's finweight and Amalia Kurniasih in the women's middleweight.
Merry was involved in a tight final match with Ronny Kusdiantoro before winning 15-13 while Amalia held off Erna Parhusip of West Java in her 18-10 win.
Thursday's matches went on past midnight after being delayed by a spate of protests. Besides Papua, the East Nusa Tenggara team also vented their dissatisfaction with the committee's questionable officiating decisions.
Another delay was brought about two rival teams from North Sumatra.
"Those cases involved prolonged negotiations that delayed the proceedings," Adrian Lumowa, from the organizing committee, said on Friday.
Friday's program, which featured the flyweight and lightweight competition, was also marred by protests, this time coming from the Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD) team, which accused the jury panel of favoritism in the match officiating after their athletes lost in their two pairings against West Java opponents.
Fans seemed to take exception to either the protest or the officiating as dozens plastic bottles were hurled into the ring.
"For us to have any chance of winning against West Java we have to go after a lopsided win where there is no doubt, because most of the jury members come from Java," NAD team coach Suhamsyah said.
The competition also serves as the qualifying event for the upcoming Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Vietnam this December.
Andrian, who is also the secretary-general of the Indonesian Tae kwon do Association (TI), said that veteran athletes who were still in top form would be projected for the pre-Olympic workout.
"If they fail to go to the finals, they can't be on the team," he was commenting on the defeats of Rosandi and M. Dalam Imam, both former members of 2001 SEA Games and 2002 Asian Games teams.
There will be 32 SEA Games hopefuls who will start training on July 1.