Kuswantoro fails to win gold medal in archery

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)