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.