Indonesian old hands shine in Asian track and field c'ship
Indonesian old hands shine in Asian track and field c'ship
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian old hands scored an admirable feat
and eluded their much stronger juniors when they scooped up gold
medals galore to finish fifth in the 9th Asian Veteran Track and
Field Championships in Seoul recently.
Seoul's Olympic Stadium saw Indonesian veterans marching with
pride during Sunday's closing ceremony for collecting 19 golds,
13 silvers and 14 bronzes after four days of competition which
featured 1,100 athletes.
Japan topped the medal standings with 99 golds, ahead of
Taiwan (39), host South Korea (34) and India (23).
The spokesman for the Association of Indonesian Veteran
Athletes, Yayik Murdopo, told Antara yesterday the Indonesians,
mostly over 50 years old, stole the limelight when two of them
won three golds each.
Emmy Hutapea, a 71-year-old grandma, won her gold medals in
the 400-meter, 800m and 1,500m races. Her teammate, Wijayantri
Suhardi, a 54-year-old throw specialist, added another golden hat
trick when she won the javelin, discus and shot put events.
A Surakarta, Central Java native, Wijayantri beat her own
Asian best of 10.11 meters by 11 centimeters en route to her
triumph in shot put event. She continued her record-breaking
streak in discus with a throw of 26.12m, surpassing Malaysian
Jane Paripuranam's benchmark of 25.92m.
Indonesia's brilliant showing continued when 66-year-old
Tineke Harahap collected two golds in record-breaking times. She
clocked 16.95 seconds in the 100m dash to outshine Indian Rose
Lamech's best by 1.35 seconds. Harahap of Jakarta then shaved
3.19 seconds off the 200m old mark of 40.40 seconds set by Ruei
Yuen Hsiew of Taiwan.
The other Indonesian record breaker was men's javelin thrower
Abdul Karim Amrullah. The 55-year-old man threw 46.72m to beat
the old mark of 42.18m jointly held by Govindram of India and
Minoru Kamishima of Japan.
Indonesia also garnered its gold medals from men's 200m runner
and discus thrower Leentje Sigat, Maria Herman in the over-55
women's javelin and Hilde Sinurat in the over-65 women's discus.
Enny Sihombing, Rosmanizar, Niek Suwondo, Amis Asrin and Kafson
Sianipar brought home golds for the country as well. The
Indonesian women's runners sealed their commendable performances
with a gold in the 4 X 100m relay in the 60-year-old age group.
(amd)