Indonesia rides off with cycling golds

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (JP): Although no Indonesian cyclists stepped up to the podium on the last day of the cycling competition at the 20th Southeast Asian Games on Saturday, its riders still pedaled home with the most gold medals.

Indonesia finished with three of a possible seven golds, plus three silvers and one bronze. Malaysia was second in the medals standing with two golds, one silver and one bronze, and Vietnam won a gold, two silvers and two bronzes for the third place.

In the 165-kilometer individual road race on Saturday, Indonesia fielded Tonton Susanto, Goang Sulistiyono, Herry Janto Setiawan, Muhammad Basri, Wawan Setyobudi and Henry Setiawan.

Malaysia's Shahrulneeza Razali, whp set the pace almost from the start, took gold in four hours and 11.01 seconds, followed by Cong Hieu Mai of Vietnam who clocked 4:00:12.08. Another Vietnamese, Quoc Thang Truong, won the bronze in 4:00:29.90.

Wawan finished sixth in 4:00:31.30, Goang was 14th in 4:00:45.70, Basri was 17th in 4:00:59, Herry Janto was 18th in 4:01:05.20, Tonton was 25th in 4:06:25.90 and Henry was 32th in 4:07:17.50.

Cycling team manager Sofian Ruzian said he was surprised that none of the Indonesians won medals on Saturday.

He said only Goang was in contention before falling away from the leading pack about 90 kilometers into the race. Tonton, Basri and Wawan sped up to catch the group, but could not keep up with Razali's pace.

Sofian blamed the national cyclists' poor endurance on their short training period.

"Let the Malaysian get the gold from this event. We have already collected three golds," he said.

Indonesia's golds were from Rissa Suseanty in the women's downhill, Ferry Sonic in the men's cross country and Herry Janto in the 50km criterium event.

It was Rizali's second gold in the individual event since he made his SEA Games debut in 1989. He earned a gold in the team event in 1993 Games.

"It's a surprise that I could win this race. When we had 50km to go to the finish line, I saw that all the cyclists had yet to move. I told myself that I had the chance to win. With four kilometers to go, the Vietnamese cyclist was very close to me but I was able to speed up.

"In the last 300 meters before the finish line, I was sure I could win," he said. (ivy)