Indonesia ranks second in shooting

By Stevie Emilia

JAKARTA (JP): Vietnam took the final two shooting golds yesterday, putting paid to the host's bid to regain the top spot in the event's medal standings.

Thailand had edged ahead of Indonesia in the medal standings on Thursday.

In the individual contest Saturday, host shooter Iriantoni was sixth as gold went to Nguyen Quoc Cuong.

Thai Panichpatikum Jakkrit tied with Dionesa Innocentes of the Philippines, but he was awarded silver because of better average scores.

"It was not easy to win the gold because I had to face strong rivals in the match," Nguyen said. "But I'm very grateful for the medal."

With 1,727 points, Vietnam's team trio again showed their skills in center fire pistol.

Thailand (1,699) won silver and bronze was garnered by the Philippines (1,697).

Indonesia ranked fifth in the 20-meter range event.

Indonesian shooting team manager, Sita Dewi Razni, said she was not disappointed by the failure to win the medals after an otherwise successful week.

"Indonesian shooters had no target in the two categories, and their skills were relatively lower than those of other participating countries," Sita said.

"But, we're proud with our results in these Games because we have exceeded our target to get five golds, and we fought hard to win."

The performance was a vast improvement on the previous Games in Chiang Mai, Thailand, which are considered the worst of the nation's participation in shooting.

Indonesia could only muster two golds, three silvers and three bronzes.

But Indonesia had kept within close range throughout the Jakarta Games.

Of the nine participating countries competing in 21 categories, the host ranked second with 11 golds, five silvers and eight bronzes, while Thailand topped the tally with 12 golds and 15 silvers.

Vietnam was third with eight golds, 16 silvers and four bronzes.

Thai shooting team manager, Bumag Bhattakara, was satisfied that his shooters had performed better than skilled counterparts from Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines.

"We'll watch closely for them in the next Games. But, we had prepared ourselves this time and worked hard to deserve this win," he said.

Malaysia was in the fourth position with four golds, four silvers and five bronzes, followed by Singapore with four golds and four bronzes.