Indonesia off

Indonesia off
to winning
start in int'l
karate event

Musthofid
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

The Tiger team won two golds while their fellow Indonesians
grouped in the Buffalo team took one on the opening day of the
Indonesia Open at the Bung Karno Tennis Indoor in Jakarta on
Tuesday.

It appeared to be the 'Tigress' who stole the spotlight with
their two golds in the team's kata and kumite events.

Indonesian trio of Anneke Enoch Flenty Meity Enoch and Rahayu
Novita were too strong for their Myanmarese opponents, winning 5-
0 in the final of the women's team kata.

In the team kumite, which featured only two teams, Telly,
Beatris Payung, Imas Nurhayati, Lenny Pirsoun and Angela Fitri
Damarsari were involved in a tight match against the Buffallo
squad before winning 3-2.

The Buffalo team made amends its failure in the women's by
triumphing in the men's at the expense of Saudi Arabia on an
"easy" 3-1 victory.

"It was beyond our expectation that we could send Arab Saudi
down easily," team manager Indra Nasution told a press conference
after the match.

However, Indra's statement aside, the home team was dealt an
initial fright when Sonny Simangasing failed to match Abdullah
Dhamadi, in which the Indonesian was swept down to the floor
twice and needed medical treatment on his face.

After Bambang Maulidin drew with Khaled Falatah in the second
tie, Arif Taufan Syamsudin evened the score with his 10-3 win
over Amer Balgsem.

Team's debutante Yuiadi Putra Warang built Indonesia's lead
with a 3-1 defeat of Abdullah Alaseery before veteran Hasan Basri
sealed dominated Merei Albeshi 4-0 in the final tie for an
overall 3-1 victory.

Indra looked relieved by the success he put down to the
workable strategy as well as solid teamwork.

"The key to the success lay on Arif and Hasan," he said about
two of the national team members now preparing for the 2002 Asian
Games.

"We did prepare both players to play a decisive role. The
younger members also showed that they could fight along with
their seniors," he said.

"I have to admit the Arabian contenders are over use both
skills and power. But they did not seem to have their strategy
worked out," he added.

Malaysia was the only other team ending the opening day with a
gold, courtesy of its women's team kumite squad comprising Sri
Rajarajeswari, S. Premila, and Agnes Tan Sze Ching.

The three-day tournament, with 16 countries taking part, will
begin competition in the individual events on Wednesday.