Little gold glitters for Indonesia on day six
Little gold glitters for Indonesia on day six
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post/Manila
With only five gold to show from its 34 events on Friday, Indonesia looked increasingly certain to suffer the humiliation of finishing outside the top three in the overall medal standings at this year's Games.
The lone bright spots were contributed by weightlifter Sandow Nasution, veteran women's judoka Endang Sri Lestari, windsurfer Oka Sulaksana and, in late reports from Cebu City, men's pencak silat athlete Eko Wahyudi in the men's singles final and the women's team.
However, Asian Games champion Oka's win in the Olympic class at Subic Bay Yacht Club was the subject of a protest from the host team.
There was a strong showing on the tennis courts, with an all- Indonesian final in the women's singles, and in badminton, where Indonesia set up three certain golds in Saturday's finals.
There had been little else to cheer about on the day, with the national soccer team crashing out to perennial champions Thailand in Bacolod City.
As of 9 p.m., Indonesia's 29 golds put it in a distant fifth place in the medal standings, behind Malaysia, with the Philippines, almost certain to win its first ever overall title, ahead of Vietnam and Thailand in the top three.
National sports officials were tightlipped when asked to comment on the situation, which promises to be the worst finish for Indonesia since it joined the Games in 1977.
Chairman of the National Sports Council (KONI) Agum Gumelar refused to comment after national tenpin bowlers failed to add to their earlier three gold in Paranaque City.
After the golden start, the cycling team ended up with a silver, with Samai finishing second behind Suhardi Hassan in the 178-kilometer Mass Start in Tagaytay, while defending champion Santia Tri Kusuma and Uyun Muzizah missed out on the top three.
Traditional boat race competitors came second behind Philippines, both in the 10 A-Side and 20 A-side events.
Richard Sambera, champion in the 100 meters freestyle earlier in the week as he nears the grand old age of 34 this month, was 67 hundreths of a second behind Thailand's Arwut Chinnapasaen, who set a new SEA Games record of 22.98 seconds in the 50-meter freestyle.
Another veteran swimmer, Singapore's Joscelin Yeo, won her fifth gold medal of the Games, this time with a little help from her friends.
Yeo, who had won four previous individual swim golds, was part of the Singapore 4x100 medley relay team that finished first Friday, putting her within one of the six she won two years ago at Vietnam when she was named the top athlete of the Games.
The 26-year-old Yeo, who has competed in every Olympics for Singapore since 1992, will have a chance to equal her 2003 mark if she wins the 50-meter freestyle on the final night of swimming Saturday, The Associated Press reported.
Saturday will provides a total of 45 gold medals: swimming (6), archery (4), arnis (4), badminton (5), billiards and snooker (2), chess (2), cycling (6), soccer (1), gymnastics (1), judo (4), shooting (2), table tennis (3), tennis (2), weightlifting (3).