Host Jakarta, C. Java secure tennis golds

JAKARTA (JP): Host Jakarta assured itself of the men's singles gold medal in the 14th National Games (PON) tennis competition yesterday when its two aces set up an all-Jakartan final.

Central Java also captured a gold from its women's doubles team of Wynne Prakusya and Liza Andriyani, who beat North Sulawesi's Irawati Moerid and Vivi Rogi in one of the two gold medal matches yesterday.

Enfant terrible Benny Wijaya continued his demolition of seeded players with a 6-3, 6-1 win over fourth seed Sebastian da Costa of Lampung in their semifinal. Benny will now play his fellow national number one Dede Suhendar, who upset second seed Andrian Raturandang of West Java 6-3, 6-2.

The defeats of Sebastian and Andrian puts Indonesia under pressure because both players will don the national colors in their crucial Davis Cup match at Taipei next weekend.

Merciless Benny, whose presence in the PON was under fire because of his refusal to play for Indonesia's Davis Cup team last year, employed a power game on his favorite clay court to tame Davis Cup debutant Sebastian.

Benny, who won his crown in the last PON three years ago as an East Javanese, vowed to battle it out in the final, despite the fact that he will be crossing rackets against the man with whom he joined forces to win the men's team gold on Tuesday.

"A gold medal is very important for me just to show that I'm still the best in the country," Benny said. Top seed Suwandi of West Java was the first notable victim of the iron hands of Benny when they met in the second round on Thursday.

Wynne and Liza, both Indonesia Fed Cup debutants, made up for their loss in the singles matches when they teamed up to tear down the defense of their North Sulawesi opponents. Wynne and Liza allowed their rivals to take their only lead, 3-2, in the first set but the rest of the match belonged to the Central Javanese.

"We predicted the outcome. We played with full confidence and we did it," Liza said of her PON debut win. The junior team of Liza and Wynne upset top seeds Yayuk and Maria Veronika Widyadarma of Yogyakarta in the first round.

Central Java can hope to take one more gold, by way of the women's singles, provided that Wynne manages to match top seed and world number 29 Yayuk Basuki of Yogyakarta in today's final.

In the other final match of the day, East Java won its only tennis gold when mixed doubles team of Bonit Wiryawan and Romana Tedjakusuma beat teammates Champy Halim and Natalia Sutrisno 6-2, 6-1.

The men's doubles final today will pit top seeds Suwandi and Sulistyo Wibowo of West Java against their second seed opponents Sebastian and Surya Wijaya of Lampung.

Waterskiing

In the water skiing, East Java ruled the waves of Sunter lake, North Jakarta by winning three of four gold medals on offer yesterday.

Nuni Nurdiyati led the East Javanese to make it a one-two- three finish in the women's slalom. Nuni scored 14.50 to beat the Baiq sisters of Yolanda and Herawati who collected 13.00 and 12.25 respectively.

Herawati avenged her loss in the trick event, finishing first with 371 ahead of Nuni who managed 286. Former skiing queen Inawati Setiawan, who represented Bali, took the bronze with 256.

East Java struck a third through men's slalom specialist Lalu Habashi who won the contest with a score of 25. Fath Daud of Bali came second, ahead of another East Javanese, Raharjo Priambodo.

Andi Reza Tulong of North Sulawesi was the only East Javanese winner after scoring 349 to finish first in the men's trick.

Meanwhile, South Kalimantan and Jakarta shared the glory in the cycling competition held at Rawamangun velodrome. A strong Jakarta team featuring national best riders, Setiawan brothers of Henry, Hengki Setiawan and Hery Janto, were unchallenged to win the 4,000-meter Team Pursuit in a combined time of 4:39.19 seconds.

West Java took the silver in 4:55.26, followed by East Java which totaled 4:47.44.

Earlier in the day, South Kalimantan's Suwandra pedaled his way to the Wind and Out gold medal. The silver went to Ronny Yahya of Yogyakarta, and the bronze to host rider Agus Yulianto. Prerace favorite, Andry Sudrajat of West Java, managed only to finish fourth.

Jakarta took its second gold of the day through Hengky, who won the 30km Point Race. Mohammad Basri of Yogyakarta finished second for the silver, followed by Mohammad Handi of West Java. (amd)