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)