Indonesia misses out on medals in tennis, athletics

Indonesia misses out on medals in tennis, athletics

Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Busan, South Korea

Indonesian women's pole vaulter Ni Putu Desi Margawati failed to
take a single medal at the Busan 2002 Asian Games, jumping only
3.80 meters, far below her national record of 4.10 meters, at the
Busan Main Stadium on Wednesday.

"Please forgive me because I have failed," Desi told reporters
after the match.

"I don't know what happened in the field, but one thing for
sure, I failed."

Desi said there was no problem during her training sessions
here and that she had jumped 4.00 meters easily on a number of
occasions.

Desi holds the Southeast Asian record of 3.90 meters, which
was set at the Kuala Lumpur 2001 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games. She
improved her national record to 4.10 meters at the Asian
Championships in Colombo just weeks before the 14th Asiad.

But she failed to clear 3.90 meters in three attempts.

"I cleared 3.80 meters quite easily and my approach in the
3.90 meters had actually been a good one.

"Unfortunately, I failed when releasing the pole," said Desi.

The failure in the first attempt obviously broke Desi's
concentration and stopped her from clearing the pole in the next
two attempts.

"Maybe I was too overconfident. Really, I don't know what
happened to me," said Desi.

"Technically speaking, there were no problems. Perhaps, I
should pray more to God because He is the one who allows
everything that has happened to me.

"I have my own ups and downs. I guess this is my down time and
I must accept it," she added.

Meanwhile, coach Hadi Wacono told reporters that it was not
the real Desi who was competing in the field.

"This is a technical event. Everything must be perfect and it
is the pole vaulter herself who can decide the result," he told
reporters.

"Desi seemed to be overconfident so she took her approach
easily. She did not run quickly enough."

Hadi also said that Desi's failure in the first and second
attempts caused her to panic in the last attempt, in which she
duly failed.

Gao Shuying of China won the gold medal after clearing 4.35
meters, a new games record. The old record was created at the
Bangkok 1998 Asiad by China's Weiyan Cai.

Gao failed to beat her own Asian record of 4.52 meters created
in Beijing in 2001.

Japan's Ono Masumi won the silver medal with 4.10 meters.

Meanwhile, at the Geumjeong Tennis Stadium in the Geumjeong
Sports Complex, Indonesia also suffered defeats when its women's
singles tennis players Angelique Widjaja and Wynne Adiati
Prakusya failed to reach the semifinals.

Wynne was outclassed by Iroda Tulyaganova of Uzbekistan 2-6,
3-6. Earlier in the 2000 Shanghai Open, Wynne suffered another
loss against the Uzbek with exactly the same score.

Meanwhile, Angie, as Angelique is popularly known, fought hard
before losing 5-7, 3-6 against Japan's Shinobu Asagoe.

This left Indonesia with the women's doubles team of Angie and
Wynne, seeded first here, still having a chance of taking another
gold medal.