Junior marks broken at national athletics meet
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Two junior national records were shattered during the track and field qualifying competition at the Madya stadium here on Tuesday.
The four-day competition, which will run until Wednesday and is being held concurrently with the Junior National Championships, aims to select players for the national athletics team in the upcoming Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
The third day of competition saw new records in the girls' 5000-meter and boys' 3000-meter steeplechases courtesy of Trianingsih and Mujianto respectively.
Trianingsih of the Central Java team finished in second place behind veteran runner Supriati Sutono. But her time of 16 minutes and 49 seconds proved to be new a junior record. The old one had stood at 17:37.59.
"I had not expected to be able to break the old record in this tournament," Trianingsih, the younger sister of national runner Ruwiyati, said as quoted by Antara.
She said she was hoping to make her SEA Games debut in Vietnam.
"If I'm selected to run in the SEA Games, I'll really try to break my own record," she said.
Supriati Sutono, who won a gold at the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok, scored 16:36.70 to win the event, but her time was far below her best of 15:54.45.
Rini Budiarti was third in 17:29.70.
Mujianto, also from Central Java, booked 9 minutes and 23.13 seconds, hundredths of seconds shy of the old mark of 9:23.82.
Abdul Manan of East Java and Yefta Betty of Banten followed behind in 9:30.34 and 10:23.60 respectively.
Mujianto's winning run still failed to lift the Central Java contingent, which ended the day in fourth place with two gold medals.
West Java tops the standings with seven golds, followed by East Java with 6 golds and West Nusatenggara with 5 golds.
National sprinter Irene Truitje Joseph was running again in her favorite event, the 100 meters, and touched the finish line in front of Supiati and Dessy Sumigar with a time of 11.92 seconds, which is still below her best, 11.56 seconds.
In the men's category, Suryo Agung Wibowo reduced his 100- meter record from 10.57 seconds to 10.46 seconds. He outran John Herman Muray and Kurais.