Junior athletes shine in Taipei Open

Junior athletes shine in Taipei Open

JAKARTA (JP): Young stars Irine Truitje Joseph and Nunung
Jayadi broke personal bests in the women's 100-meter dash and
men's pole vault during the two-day Taipei Open track and field
event on May 29 and May 30.

Irine, 18, and from Maluku, clocked 11.79 seconds, bettering
her own junior national record of 11.90 set in Jakarta in 1997.

Nunung from Jakarta improved his jump from 4.95 meters to
5.00m in the meet held in Kaohsiung. His old record was set on
the first day of the National Track and Field Invitational Meet
at Senayan Madya Stadium early in May.

Women's hammer thrower Kusmiati also took part in the
tournament but was unable to better her record of 38.71m set in
May's invitational. Kusmiati threw 33.64 meters in the event.

Irine and Nunung, who are undergoing training as gold medal
prospects for the 20th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Brunei
Darussalam in August, have recorded extraordinary feats this
year. However, Barmawi Chaidir, secretary-general of the
Indonesian Amateur Athletic Association (PASI), did not hold high
expectations of their chances.

He mentioned four other disciplines in which national athletes
possess a greater likelihood of success.

"We can't predict about our medal target but hopefully we can
win medals from four disciplines, men's and women's marathon,
women's pole vault and women's hammer throw," he said on
Wednesday.

But he did rate Nunung's chances as relatively good.

"Some athletes, including Supriati Sutono (the 1998 Asian
Games gold medalist in women's 5,000m) and Nunung Jayadi also
have chances to win golds," he said.

Irine set a new national record of 23.92 seconds in the
women's 200m dash in the May invitational, slashing the old
record of 24.24 seconds of Henny Maspaitela from the 11th SEA
Games in 1981.

On the same occasion, Nunung improved his own national record
from 4.90m to 4.95m. His old record was set in Jakarta in June
1997.

Irine expressed hope that she would be able to maintain her
own national record in the 200m and break the 14-year-old women's
100m record.

"I'll try not to run under my own record in the 200m dash but
at the same time I will try to break the national record in the
100m set by Henny," she said.

Henny's 100m record of 11.66 seconds dates back to September
1985. (ivy)