Indonesia's women hammer throwers eye SEA Games gold

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian women hammer throwers Nia Meilani and Yurita Ariani are eying the gold medal at the new event of the Kuala Lumpur Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in September.

"We are aiming to win the gold and we hope to bring it home," Yurita told The Jakarta Post on Monday on the sidelines of a 10- day training camp for women hammer throwers.

"But we must be aware of Thailand because they have good athletes as well."

The training camp -- which features the Australian coach Lawrie Barclay and thrower Karyne di Marco -- has participants from six countries; India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and host Indonesia.

Yurita holds the national record of 46.56 meters. Unfortunately, she failed in her attempt at the Chinese Taipei Open late last month after being disqualified.

"I still don't understand how it could happen. Actually I threw 48 meters but unfortunately, I was disqualified," Yurita said.

Nia managed to throw 45.61 meters, her personal best.

"I was surprised to learn that I could break the 45-meter mark because I have never thrown that far before. I usually only throw 43 meters," she said.

Nia replaced men's pole vaulter Nunung Jayadi who canceled his trip to the championships, which took place on April 28 and April 29.

The field event will be staged for the first time at the biennial championships after the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) officially introduced it in 1998. Another event to be staged for the first time at the Games is the women's pole vault.

Both Nia and Yurita said that Southeast Asian countries were two steps away from producing big names in athletics.

"Throwers from Taipei started practicing in 1992 when they heard of the IAAF plan while we only started in 1998 after it was introduced," Yurita said.

"Technically, they are more advanced than we are," Nia added.

Both Nia and Yurita will compete at the National Championships from June 17 to June 20 at the Madya Stadium in the Bung Karno Sports Complex.

They will also perform in the first and third leg of the National Grand Prix on July 1 and July 25 respectively. But they are likely to skip the second leg on July 15 in order to compete at the Malaysia Open. (yan)