Jakarta pulls away in medal race

Jakarta pulls away in medal race

JAKARTA (JP): Host Jakarta broke away for a commanding lead in
the medal race as the 14th National Games (PON) stepped up the
pace with more records yesterday.

The swimming pool and weight lifting gym again played host to
record-breaking contests, which resulted in five new national
records.

Jakarta soared to a huge medal collection of 19 golds, 15
silvers and 10 bronzes, leaving West Java in a distant second
with nine golds, seven silvers and 17 bronzes.

Archery helped East Java, which relinquished its traditional
runner-up place in the Games to West Java three years ago, speed
up the pace, with three gold medals.

East Java remained at third spot, with eight golds, 15 silvers
and five bronzes. But the biggest team in this year's Games still
has nine days more to repeat its 1989 feat of reaching second
place.

After the second day of competition yesterday, the medal tally
saw encouraging changes as 25 of 27 provinces have now joined the
list of medal-winning provinces.

East Java took three of eight gold medals offered in archery
yesterday, which saw Indonesian Olympians fail to live up to
their status. Dahliana saved the big names from embarrassment
with her 60-meter gold for East Kalimantan, while fellow Olympian
and sister Hamdiah managed only a bronze, also in the same
division.

Nurfitriyana Lantang, dubbed Indonesia's best archer for her
Olympic silver in 1988 and World Championship bronze last year,
walked off the field empty-handed.

Track and field started the competition day in a flat showing.
There were no notable records, but a meet record fell in the six
medal events contested yesterday, which saw Irian Jaya take a
slender lead with two golds.

Mardi Lestari, the former continent's fastest man, extended
the grumbles of track and field enthusiasts with an early exit in
his favorite 100m dash.

The 30-year-old North Sumatran, who admitted making poor
preparations, clocked his career worst time of 11.90 seconds to
finish in the rear in the heat.

Jakarta mined three golds from the pool in the Games evening
program yesterday, but it was East Javanese women's swimmer Rita
Mariani who stole the show.

Rita took full advantage of her favorite 200m breaststroke
discipline, touching the finish block in two minutes and 36.13
seconds to beat her own national best by 0.75 of a second.

Dwi Pujiastuti of North Sulawesi finished further back in
2:41.78 for the silver, ahead of Olga Halim of West Sumatra, who
clocked 2:42.12.

Elsa Manora Nasution of Jambi collected her second gold of the
Games in the 200m freestyle, despite her lackluster time of
2:07.93. Meitri Widya Pangestika came second in 2:09.01, followed
by West Java's mermaid Catherine Surya, who swam 2:09.94.

Wisnu Wardhana joined the national record breaker list when he
was timed 55.97 seconds for the men's 100m butterfly gold medal.
His mark shoved 0.47 of a second off his own national best.

Felix Sutanto earned Jakarta its second gold in the men's 400m
individual medley with a time of 4:34.72, well inside the
national record of 4:34.27 set by his twin brother Albert, who
finished second in yesterday's competition in 4:43.10.

Jakarta ended the day with the 4 X 200m freestyle relay, the
newly included event in the Games. The home quartet of Wisnu,
Felix, Albert and Olympian Richard Sam Bera proved too much, with
a combined time of 7:56.61 seconds, almost a second slower than
their national best mark they set in the Southeast Asian Games in
Chiang Mai, Thailand last December. (amd)

Leading medal tally (after the second day of competition):

G S B
Jakarta 18 14 7
East Java 8 12 6
West Java 8 7 15
Lampung 5 4 6
Jambi 4 2 1
S. Sulawesi 3 7 3
Central Java 3 3 9
Irian Jaya 3 3 1
Yogyakarta 2 2 1
N. Sulawesi 2 1 3
E. Kalimantan 2 0 4
West Sumatra 1 1 3
North Sumatra 1 1 3
S. Kalimantan 1 1 1
W. Kalimantan 1 0 1
Bali 0 1 2
Riau 0 0 2
SE Sulawesi 0 1 1
South Sumatra 0 1 0
East Timor 0 0 3
E. Nusa Tenggara 0 1 0
Bengkulu 0 0 1