Jakarta surrenders PON title to E. Java for the first time
Jakarta surrenders PON title to E. Java for the first time
By Ivy Susanti
SURABAYA (JP): East Java secured the overall champion title of
the 15th National Games (PON) for the first time in history by
collecting 130 golds, 105 silvers and 113 bronzes.
Defending champion Jakarta was runner-up after earning 114
golds, 83 silvers and 92 bronzes.
Ironically, Jakarta earned its first overall champion title
and lost it for the first time in Surabaya. In the 1969 PON here,
Jakarta took the title from West Java with 101 golds, 69 silvers
and 40 bronzes and now it had to surrender it to the host.
West Java, on the other hand, has not been successful in
reaching the top. It stays in third position with 79 golds, 88
silvers and 104 bronzes.
State Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Mahadi Sinambela
expressed satisfaction over PON's results and its arrangement.
But he called on the authorities to avoid using PON for its own
political agenda.
"I hope the overall champion title will not be used in the
campaign to elect the governor. Let's be fair. During the
administration of former president Soeharto, any minor
achievement in the national sports event was used to seek
appraisal from the central government," he announced on Thursday.
Mahadi expressed concern over the fact that the achievement of
the 26 participating provinces' was unequal.
"I'm rather disappointed to see that West Sumatra is facing a
setback. As far as I know, it used to be Bengkulu who always
finished at the bottom. If the quality of sports in all provinces
is equal, they must share more or less the same amount of
medals," he said.
He also wished that PON could be staged outside Jakarta in the
future.
"We have to decentralize such a major event to all provinces
to boost their sports development and to give them a feeling as
being part of Indonesia."
"I don't want any province to feel excluded because all the
events are staged in Jakarta. And then they try to raise their
own flag," he said, referring to recent calls from the Irianese
to gain independence from Indonesia.
Three more track events are to be staged at the closing
ceremony on Friday -- the finals of the 1,500m run, men's 4x400m
relay and women's 4x400m relay. President Abdurrahman Wahid is
scheduled to close the quadrennial event in the evening.
H.M. Rawi, the director of PT Lasindo Multimedia 2000, said
earlier that tickets for the closing ceremony were limited to
only 11,000 for security reasons.
At the track and field final on Thursday, Ni Putu Dessy
Margawati of West Nusa Tenggara cleared 3.65m to win the gold and
break her previous national record of 3.50m in the women's pole
vault. Alia Basalamah of Jakarta won a silver after she jumped
3.30m and teammate Emrina was next after she jumped 3.10m.
East Java was the real champion by winning the most
prestigious gold medal in soccer by defeating West Java 1-0.
North Sumatra won the bronze after defeating Jakarta 1-0.
Medal Tally (as of 9:30 p.m.)
Provinces Gold Silver Bronze
East Java 130 105 113
Jakarta 114 83 92
West Java 79 88 104
Central Java 41 61 65
Lampung 20 22 26
Jambi 19 9 13
Papua 17 19 23
East Kalimantan 14 11 17
North Sumatra 14 10 18
South Sulawesi 12 13 18
North Sulawesi 11 15 17
South Kalimantan 11 8 10
Bali 10 10 15
South Sumatra 8 14 16
Southeast Sulawesi 8 5 13
Yogyakarta 6 12 25
Maluku 6 3 6
Riau 5 9 15
West Kalimantan 4 8 7
East Nusa Tenggara 4 6 8
Central Kalimantan 3 11 18
West Nusa Tenggara 3 6 7
Central Sulawesi 2 1 3
Bengkulu 1 3 5
Aceh 1 1 13
West Sumatra - 4 6
Total 543 537 673