Kuswantoro fails to win gold medal in archery

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's best bet in men's archery, Kuswantoro, came in just second best against Parawit Poliunoleed of Thailand in the individual event at the 21st Southeast Asian Games on Friday.

Kuswantoro was beaten 107-108 in the final in Johor Bahru. Nyi Nyi Tun of Myanmar took the bronze.

The failure added to the Indonesian team's woes, which the day before saw another below-par performance by Rusena Galanteh in the women's category. Rusena could only finish third behind Purita Joy Marino of the Philippines and Lim Geok Pong of Malaysia.

Kuswantoro had looked to end the tussle in the winning side as he was in front on points in the first five attempts before staggering the target in his next attempts.

"I can't believe it, it's just a matter of a single point deficit and the gold's gone," he said. The competition will end on Saturday with the men's and women's team competitions.

Udi Harsono, the secretary-general of the Indonesian Archery Association (Perpani), tried to look for an excuse for his charges' failure, saying that he had not expected a gold from the individual events, but rather from the team events.

"Of course, it would have been a great achievement if we had won the men's individual event because I know this event has always been dominated by other countries such as Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia," he said.

Udi's comment contrasts somewhat with the record in which Indonesia won its only gold from the men's individual event at 1997 SEA Games in Jakarta. Two golds in the team competition were won by the Philippines.

Indonesia was the region's strongest archery powerhouse until the early 1990s. Its women's team won a silver at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul and a silver at the World Championships in 1995 in Jakarta.

The archery competition was not played at the 1999 SEA Games in Brunei Darussalam. (01)