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