Indonesia grabs 10,000m men's gold at athletics meet

JAKARTA (JP): After three barren days, "Indonesia Raya," the national anthem, was finally heard when Ferry Junaedi received the gold medal from Muhammad (Bob) Hasan, Indonesia's track and field chief, for winning the men's 10,000m.

Ferry, 16, surpassed Mohamed G. Akdy of Saudi Arabia in the 16th round with nine more laps to go and from then on, took the lead until the finish line.

Ferry clocked in at 31:13.17secs, leaving the Saudi Arabian runner in his wake some 200m behind. Mohamed won the silver with a time of 31:51.52.

"This is my best time," Ferry, whose father is a truck driver, told reporters yesterday. His coach Yon Daryono actually prepared him for the men's 5000m, Ferry said, but in that competition he only came in fifth at 15:09.51, far behind China's Xia Fengyuan, who finished in 14:29.39.

Ferry's victory thus saved face for the host athletes and lifted Indonesia's rank from 12th to 8th.

As was obvious from the outset, China, with a total of 16 gold medals, dominated the 5th Asian junior track and field championship, finishing its fourth and last day yesterday.

When asked to comment on China's victory, China's team leader, Li Ya Guang, told The Jakarta Post and Suara Karya that he was proud that his team dominated the meet without belittling their opponents.

"Our Chinese athletes were taken from China's provincial best," Li said, adding that not all athletes of his team were successful in this meet, particularly in the men's 4x100m relay team.

"For the men's 4x100m relay team, our junior and senior teams lagged quite far behind Thailand and Japan. The Chinese men's 4x100m relay team also finished poorly, taking 6th place, far behind Thailand and Japan, the gold and the silver winners.

Though China's junior athletes dominated the meet, Li said that none of them would be sent to the upcoming Asian Games in Hiroshima. "For Asian Games, we have prepared our senior ones," he added.

When asked to comment on Indonesian's athletes, Li said that in his opinion, Indonesian athletes were diligent and had a strong will to win, but seemed to lack intensive, long training.

In China, Li said, youths from all walks of life are exposed to various kinds of sports. The country then picks the best of them, trains and directs them to break the world's records. Thailand

Thailand's male relay team, who had previously won the gold medal in the men's 4x400m, again showed their supremacy.

The team ran 39.66secs in the men's 4x100m yesterday, leaving Japan, which took the silver, one minutes 15 seconds behind and created a new Asian junior record.

Thailand's coach, Suchart Jaesuraparp, told the Post that third runner Worasit Vechaput and anchor leg Sayan Namwong would run with the other two, more senior sprinters, in the men's 4x100m relay in the upcoming Asian Games in Hiroshima.

Second runner Reanchai Seehawong would act as a reserve for his Asiad-bound team, added Suchart, who himself won the men's 100m three times in Asia championships.

With the end of the four-day meet, a total of seven records were broken, five of which were established on Monday. In addition to Thailand's men 4x100m relay team, Chinese women's 4x100m relay team also shattered the old mark of 46.02 set by the Indian national team in 1992 in New Delhi. The Chinese girls raced 44.75secs. (arf)

Final medals tally

G S B 1. China 16 4 4 2. Japan 7 10 8 3. Qatar 4 3 5 4. C Taipei 4 2 5 5. India 3 6 3 6. Thailand 3 4 2 7. Sri Lanka 2 2 0 8. Indonesia 1 0 1 9. Turkmenistan 1 0 0 10.South Korea 0 4 5 11.Kazakhstan 0 4 3 12.Uzbekhistan 0 2 1 13.Saudi Arabia 0 1 0 14.Rep of Yaman 0 0 1 15.Myanmar 0 0 1 16.Malaysia 0 0 1