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.