Indonesia comes up short in medal hunt
Indonesia comes up short in medal hunt
By Primastuti Handayani and Ivy Susanti
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (JP): With relatively few medals up for
grabs, Indonesia earned two more golds on the fifth day of
competition at the 20th Southeast Asian Games here on Thursday.
But with only three days remaining and most medals already
distributed, it is almost certain that defending overall champion
Indonesia will not move to the top.
Indonesia remained third in the medals standing with 34 golds,
31 silvers and 45 bronzes. Thailand picked up gold medals in
golf, snooker and shooting to extend its lead with 47 golds, 36
silvers and 41 bronzes, ahead of Malaysia which collected 45
golds, 35 silvers and 39 bronzes.
There is a possibility that Indonesia will finish third for
the first time since it joined the Games in 1977.
The National Sports Council chairman, Wismoyo Arismunandar,
blamed the lack of funds to finance sports development as the
reason for the foreseeable defeat.
"Due to the unabated economic crisis, our athletes didn't have
many chances at overseas tryouts. We could not expect them to
reach the optimal outcome as they did in Jakarta two years ago,"
he said.
One of Indonesia's gold medals came in the traditional boat
race held at Serasa Water Sports Complex after its men's 22-crew
team won the 800 meters in 2:48.49 seconds.
The other gold was taken by men's cyclist Herry Janto Setiawan
who triumphed in the men's 70 kilometers criterium race with 31
points. Malaysian Faizul Izwan Abdul Rahman scored 28 points for
the silver, and the bronze went to Norberto Oconer of the
Philippines, who collected 26 points.
A solitary goal from Vietnam's Nguyen Hong Son 20 minutes
before the end of the game dashed Indonesia's hope to win the
gold medal in soccer for the first time since 1991.
Vietnam will face defending champion Thailand, after edging
out Singapore 2-0 in the other semifinal.
Indonesian women's golf team Ani Iman, Sitti Retno Purwandari
and Titi Puryanti managed to finish third for the bronze. The
gold went to Thailand and the silver to Malaysia.
Indonesia hopes to win five more golds in badminton as most of
its players reached the semifinals on Thursday.
The highlight of Friday's semifinals will be matches pitting
Indonesian and Malaysian players. Taufik Hidayat and Ronny
Agustinus will meet Malaysia's Roslin Hashim and Wong Choon Han
respectively in the men's singles, and Indonesian men's doubles
team of Flandy Limpele and Eng Hian will play Chew Choon Eng and
Rosman Razak.
On the tennis courts, Indonesia hopes to grab two more golds
in the women's doubles and mixed doubles on Friday.
Anton Suseno is the only Indonesian left in the race for gold
medals in table tennis.
Indonesia also hopes to win three more golds in pencak silat,
and a gold each in boxing and swimming on Friday.
Veteran Albert Papilaya holds the greatest chance of four
Indonesians who reached the boxing finals.
In the pool, Richard Sam Bera is expected to contribute one
more gold from the men's 4x100m medley relay.