Indonesia wallows in mediocrity but hopeful about future
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
At the end of the SEA Games, Indonesia again finished behind the region's sporting rival while Vietnam emerged as another new power to be reckoned with in the future.
Fielding 600 athletes and competing in 28 of 32 sports, Indonesia returned with an overall 55 gold medals to end up in third place in the final standings for the third consecutive season of the biennial, multi-event sporting showcase in Southeast Asia.
Given the previous two occasions and the current ability of the regional sporting power, Indonesia, despite its past domination, had apparently anticipated such a result, with delegation head Djoko Pramono explaining that a majority of the team included young athletes.
"We came to Vietnam with young athletes accounting for 70 percent of the team. Don't look purely at the medal tally, but see how our athletes battled hard out there, particularly the young athletes; they show they have good prospects for the future," Djoko said.
The 22nd SEA Games ran from Dec. 5 to Dec. 13, featuring 11 countries, incorporating an overall 5,000 athletes.
A total of 442 gold medals were on offer at the playing venues, split between Hanoi in the north and Ho Chi Minh City in the southern part of the country.
Vietnam deserved what appeared to be the fruits of its long preparations and capped its first hosting of the Games with a formidable gold collection of 158 for its first-ever championship crown.
Thailand, which used to be Indonesia's only strong contender in the championships before the last three editions of the Games, settled for runner-up status.
But its gold count of 90 was still way ahead of Indonesia's and left KONI, the Indonesian sporting authority, grappling with another mediocre showing in the largest event in the region.
Since its participation in the event in 1977 Indonesia came out as winner of most medals, except in 1985 and 1995, when Thailand, on both occasions the host, relegated Indonesia to second place.
The 1997 edition in Jakarta marked Indonesia's last celebration as champion as it was demoted to an unprecedented third position behind Thailand and Malaysia in 1999 in Brunei.
Thailand and Malaysia swapped positions for the top two spots in 2001 in Kuala Lumpur, with Indonesia remaining in third.
It was then Vietnam, which made its last appearance in 1973 when the competition was still named the Southeast Asian Peninsula (SEAP) Games, returning to the scene only in 1989, that made the best of its first hosting of the Games.
In its first appearance after a 16-year absence, Vietnam appeared to be struggling, with only three golds won from the 1989 arena to finish in seventh place, better only than fellow minnows Brunei and Laos.
But it has since improved on its performance, enhancing its collection of golds, with the 2001 SEA Games seeing it fourth on the medal tally, at 33 golds.
The trend, which reached a peak on its own soil, showed Vietnam's long and well worked-out plan of preparation, as revealed by the country's sports authority.
"We laid out a 10-year training program when we returned to the SEA Games," said Dang Lam Son, an official of the Vietnam sports ministry.
Indonesia's flop in challenging Vietnam and Thailand for the top position was attributed largely to its inability to excel in some of the sports that provided the bulk of medals in the competition.
Indonesia emerged as the best gold winner in badminton, cycling, canoeing, rowing and weightlifting.
But with a total of 24 golds from the combined 57 on offer in those five sports, the collection was far from able to secure the team's overall medal count, while in the lucrative fields Indonesia was totally dominated by other teams.
In the aquatics, which provided 41 golds, Indonesia could only splash home two while Thailand, with its 15 golds, turned out to be one of the three major contenders in the pool, along with Singapore and the Philippines.
Ni Putu Desi Margawati's blistering jump, to set a new SEA Games record in the pole vault, was still unable to help push the team's collection beyond four golds in the track and field, which had 45 golds up for grabs.
The shooting range proved to be a gold mine for Vietnam, which raked 25 from 42. Indonesia was a sad disappointment in the end, with only five silvers and five bronzes brought home.
Indonesia's wrestlers all crashed flat on the mat while Vietnam hauled in a huge strike of 18 golds.
Wushu, fencing, sepak takraw, table tennis and traditional boat race competitions left Indonesia's team with either silvers or bronzes, while the national basketball and soccer players went home empty-handed.
The pain seemed to be aggravated for the soccer team, under the management of the Indonesia soccer governing body PSSI, as it stumbled to an embarrassing 6-0 defeat by eventual champion Thailand during the group matches.
Despite its mediocre run, Indonesia left Vietnam optimistic about the future as it unveiled its Indonesia Rises program, with a view to posing a strong challenge in selected sports in the 2006 Asian Games.
KONI will be looking, in a long training workout, to groom 100 best athletes from sports that will give Indonesia good medal prospects in Qatar.
However, Indonesia will have to prove that it is able first to tackle its stagnation at a regional level when the 2005 SEA Games is staged in the Philippines.
As the host, Philippines could well be another force to reckon with.
Its surge to finish above Malaysia, with a late attack on the Malaysians in the medal race, showed that the Filipinos have the potential to make their way up the medal ladder.
Indonesia may look back to the 1991 edition, which was hosted by the Philippines, when the then defending champion retained the top place only by a single gold above the host.
Indonesia's medal collection in each sport at the 22nd SEA Games (total golds on offer in brackets):
Gold Silver Bronze Athletics (45) 1 1 2
Aquatics (41) 2 3 6
Archery (4) 1 1 2
Badminton (7) 3 2 2
Basketball (2) - - -
Billiards-Snooker (12) 1 2 2
* Bodybuilding (8) - - -
Boxing (9) 1 2 4
Canoeing (15) 8 3 4
Chess (8) 1 4 -
Cycling (10) 4 3 -
Fencing (10) - - 4
Fin Swimming (16) 1 5 6
Gymnastics (24) 2 2 4
* Handball (2) - - -
Judo (16) 3 4 4
Karatedo (19) 4 5 7
Pencak Silat (22) 4 8 7
* Petanque (6) - - -
Rowing (8) 4 1 -
Sepak Takraw (6)- - 2
Shooting (42) - 5 5
* Shuttle Cock (7) - - -
Soccer (2) - - -
Table Tennis (7)- - 4
Tae Kwon Do (16)2 1 6
Tennis (7) 3 4 5
Traditional Boat Race (4) - - 2
Volleyball (4) 2 1 -
Weightlifting (13) 5 2 3
Wrestling (22) - 4 7
Wushu (28) - 2 5
Total: 442 55 68 98
*) Indonesia did not take part