Indonesia, Vietnam share glory in cycling

Indonesia, Vietnam share glory in cycling

SEREMBAN, Malaysia (Agencies): Indonesia and Vietnam shared the glory in the road race individual time trial cycling competition at the 21st Southeast Asian Games, winning the men's and women's gold medal respectively here on Wednesday.

Tonton Susanto delivered Indonesia's gold when he won the men's 45km ITT, pushing Vietnamese Mai Cong Hi Eu and Filipino Victor Espiritu into second and third spots respectively.

It was Indonesia's eighth gold in cycling, which has 20 golds on offer.

In the women's 31km event, Hoang Thi Thanh Tan of Vietnam took the gold clocking 44:51.983 to beat Indonesia's Uyun Muzizah and Nuraini who finished second and third respectively.

Starting as the second last rider in the field of 13 competitors in the men's category, the 27-year-old Tonton pipped three riders alongside him in his final effort to post the fastest time.

Tonton, riding under a hot and humid condition was in total command when he hit the finishing line in a time of 56:18.937s ahead of Mai and Victor who clocked 57:01.671s and 57:28.750s respectively.

"The hilly terrain gave me the edge as I have trained under such condition prior to the Games here. I had an intensive training for six month in Yogyakarta on hilly routes and this has paid off.

"I have set my target to win both the gold in the ITT and the road race mass start. Today, I have won one gold and I'm confident that the other one will be within my reach," said Tonton who will tie the knot with Lenia after the Games.

Malaysia's Shahrulneeza Razali who was expected to retain his title he won in the Brunei Games two years ago, failed to finish among the winners when he came fifth.

Shahrulneeza, the double gold medalist in 1999 Games only managed to clock 57:47.543s while teammate Musairi Musa finished eighth with a time of 59:44.423s.

"I'm really disappointed with my performance today. I was not riding as usual which caused me the medal," said Shahrulneeza.

Malaysia's women riders were also a big disappointment. Noor Azian Alias and Noor Asrina Sulaiman finished sixth and seventh respectively.

Noor Azian, Malaysia's best hope made a fatal mistake by taking a wrong route and managed to clock 48:16.698s and Noor Asrina (48:53.025s).

The men's and women's road race mass start will be held at Bandar Baru Nilai on Sept 16.