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.