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