Jakarta strengthens its grip on PON
JAKARTA (JP): Midway into the 14th National Games, host Jakarta issued a true warning yesterday that no provinces are likely to dethrone it.
Jakartan troops won most battles, ending the day with a haul of 70 golds, 41 silvers and 41 bronzes to leave its closest contender West Java a distant second with 35 golds, 40 silvers and 46 bronzes. East Java remained third with 21 golds, 39 silvers and 36 bronzes.
Jakarta's swimmers ruled the pool with three more golds from Albert Susanto in the men's 200m butterfly, Albert's twin brother Felix in the 100m backstroke and the quartet of the Sutanto brothers, Richard Sam Bera and Wisnu Wardhana in the 4 x 100m freestyle relay.
Albert set a new national record on his way to the laurels with his best of two minutes and 04.67 seconds, just four hundredth of a second faster than the old mark established by fellow Jakartan Vidi Lukman Korompis in the 1993 Games.
A smiling Sutanto said he was surprised to learn that he had set the only national record of the day. "My target was just winning a gold medal. I've never dreamed of breaking a record," said 21-year-old Albert.
Albert, a freestyle specialist, said he wanted to excel in backstroke after Korompis' death from cancer in the neck in 1994.
Second to him yesterday was Sumanto of North Sumatra, who clocked 2:06.70. Donny Utomo of Central Java finished third in 2:07.23.
The pool again saw two national swimmers, Catherine Surya and Elsa Manora Nasution, continue their bitter rivalry. West Java's Catherine beat Jambi's Elsa in the women's 800m freestyle for the gold and the reversed result came in the 200m individual medley.
Thus far Elsa has scooped five golds, two more than Catherine. Both collected their gold collection yesterday in record time.
"I think it is quite extraordinary that I can exceed my province's estimation of winning two golds," said Catherine, who will turn 16 on Oct. 15.
Other fronts
The glorious day for Jakarta continued when its athletes produced a clean sweep in skydiving, missed just one out of a possible four golds in shooting and won three in cycling.
In tennis, Jakarta assured itself of the men's singles crown after Benny Wijaya set up a final showdown with teammate Dede Suhendar. Whoever wins the men's singles crown today will give Jakarta its second gold, after the first from the men's team.
Yayuk Basuki, meanwhile, moved closer to her women's singles gold medal. The world number 29 from Yogyakarta beat Jakarta's Wukirasih Sawondari yesterday to play Fed Cup debutant Wynne Prakusya of Central Java in today's final.
Jakarta also took one of the two marathon golds at stake yesterday through Hilda Napitupulu, who won the women's race in the absence of the defending champion and favorite, Ruwiyati of Central Java.
Hilda admitted after clocking a sub-par time of 3:10:06.88 which earned her the gold that Ruwiyati remains the best in the long-distance race.
Ruwiyati, who holds both the national and SEA Games records in 2:34:29, failed to receive the go-ahead from medical officials of the Games' organizing committee to defend her title.
The committee said it would allow the 18-year-old Central Javanese to compete if she managed to show a clean bill of health.
A new ruling from the International Amateur Athletics Federation bars a runner under the age of 20 years old to compete in marathons.
Eduardus Nabunome won the men's race in a sluggish time of 2 hours 25 minutes and 20.30 seconds to earn East Nusa Tenggara its only second gold in the Games. (arf/amd)