Indonesian frontrunner crashes out of LG Cup
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Derry Darmansyah, a national tae kwon do hopeful for the upcoming 2002 Asian Games, ignominiously crashed out early on the second day of the 3rd LG Cup, which was marred by media threats to boycott the tournament.
Derry had just returned home from his triumphant run in South Korea only to find he was unable to keep up his form in the local competition against Aziz Wildan of West Java at the Bung Karno Tennis Indoor Hall here on Friday.
The Central Java team member was stunned 7-5 in the preliminary round of the bantamweight competition and promptly blamed lethargy and injury for the exit.
"I had only one week of preparation after I returned from Korea. That was not enough time to return to top form," Derry told The Jakarta Post. He contributed one of the four gold medals the national team brought home from its Korean tryout.
"I still feel pain from my injury," the 22-year-old said while pointing at his knee. He said he had picked up the injury during the final match against a Chinese fighter.
Coach Bambang Wijanarko offered a morale booster to his protege, saying that being fatigued had resulted in Derry's inability to use his power.
"Derry did not look like he used to. He couldn't optimize his tactics and became slow out there. His opponent came at him first with an offensive," Bambang said.
Wildan cruised through with two other victims, Harry Ronald of Bali and Wempit Kesowe of Papua, before he was stopped by eventual champion Syafrizal Tanjung of Jakarta 6-3 in the final match.
Jakarta took another gold through Ertina Novianti, who defeated Erna Rima of Bengkulu in the women's heavyweight final.
Wildan was not too disappointed by the result as he said, after his semifinal win over Wempit, that he was already relieved to have reached the final.
Finalists are guaranteed to be called to the national training center for the 2003 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Vietnam.
West Java made amends for Wildan's failure with wins in the men's heavyweight and women's bantamweight divisions respectively, courtesy of Ludwig and Farah Armand.
The overall champion in the 2001 season now leads the standings with four golds, followed by Jakarta with three and East Java with one.
The second day of the tournament was tainted by over-zealous handling of security affairs, with journalists accusing the security attendants, most of whom were plainclothed Marines, of being excessive in their duties.
Not only did the rough behavior from security men provoke verbal exchanges but it also resulted in restrictions on media access, which meant that reporters had difficulty in approaching their news sources.
Representing about 20 print and electronic media, the journalists, in a letter addressed to chairman of the Indonesian Tae kwon do Association (TI) Suharto, demanded the organizing committee deal with the complaint, threatening otherwise to boycott the event.