Indonesia shows its skills at last in SEA Games

Sat, 16 Dec 1995, 00:00 WIB

By Dwiatmanta

CHIANG MAI, Thailand (JP): Indonesian athletes did their
country proud yesterday as they pounded their way to gold medals
in the Southeast Asian Games.

But their charges came far too late.

Thailand's haul of gold medals surpassed the 100 mark to
secure the overall championship title, an honor that Indonesia
has jealously guarded for the past decade.

But yesterday, for once, Indonesia showed its teeth in the
competition and challenged the host country's sports supremacy.
Indonesia's 14 gold medals yesterday brought its tally to 59,
while Thailand won 17 more to bring its total to 113.

Indonesian archers found their mark to claim both the men's
and women's team events, after a disappointing performance in the
individual numbers earlier.

Nurfitriayana Lantang, the sole remnant of the 1988 Olympic
silver medalist team, along with Dahliana and Hamdiah, edged
Malaysia aside to claim the gold. The Indonesian men's trio of
Indra Setiawan, Tito Rembrand and Safruddin just beat Thailand to
the mark.

Indonesian paddlers swept all four golds in traditional
rowing, winning the men's and women's 400 meters (10 paddlers),
the women's 600m (20 paddlers) and the men's 400m (20 paddlers).

In athletics, Sugeng Jatmiko won the triple jump with a leap
of 15.92m to claim the gold, while Rumini clinched the heptathlon
gold with 5,044 points.

It was an overall disappointment for Indonesia in the track
and field as it managed only seven golds against Thailand's 21
and Malaysia's eight.

Weightlifter Sunaryo scored a total of 330 kilograms in the
99-kg category to give Indonesia another gold.

Indra Halim won the middle class category and Pino Indra in
featherweight to gain two more tae kwon do golds.

It was almost total disaster on the tennis court, except for
Yayuk Basuki and Romana Tedjakusuma, who beat Thailand's Tamarine
Thanasugarn and Suwimol Duangchan 6-2 6-2 to win the women's
double gold medal.

Indonesia failed even to secure places in the finals in three
other numbers that it had expected to win: Suwandi, the defending
champion in the men's singles title, Romana and Mimma Chenovita
in the women's singles, and Suwandi/Eddy Kusdaryanto in the men's
doubles, were all eliminated from competition. Yayuk and Edy
Sulistyo provided one last hope in tennis, qualifying for today's
mixed doubles' final.

In table tennis, Rossy Pratiwi secured her final berth after
beating Thailand's Anisara 15-21 21-10 21-11 21-10 and Hadiyudo
reached the men's final, beating Chaitat of Thailand 21-18, 21-
16, 21-14. The men's double final today will be an all-Indonesian
affair between Anton Suseno/Hadiyudo and Al Arkam/Deddy da Costa.

With only two more days of competition, Indonesians are
engaging in some introspection as to what went wrong with the
performance of their athletes, having come here with high
expectations of winning at least 130 golds and the title.

It is generally admitted now that Indonesia grossly
underestimated its opponents. Concern is beginning to shift
already to the prospects for the next Games, which will be hosted
by Indonesia in 1997.

"We've got to match what they (the other countries) have
achieved, if we don't want to lose the 19th Games in Jakarta. We
have to prepare well," said Muhammad Hindarto, one of the
officials leading the Indonesian delegation here.

Breaking with tradition, the Games will wind up on Sunday with
the 12 boxing finals, in which the Thais excel, rather than with
soccer. Indonesia is fielding four finalists: welterweight Robert
Aswin Cabui, light middleweight Henrik Simangunson, middleweight
Pino Jafnta Udyanta and light heavyweight Albert Papilaya.