Malaysia edges Thailand in medal pursuit

Malaysia edges Thailand in medal pursuit

By Primastuti Handayani and Ivy Susanti

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (JP): The race for supremacy at the 20th
Southeast Asian (SEA) could be decided in a photo finish after
Malaysia bumped Thailand from the lead on Friday.

Winning two gold medals each in lawn bowling and pencak silat
and one in swimming, Malaysia pulled ahead of Thailand with 50
golds, 38 silvers and 42 bronzes.

Thailand, aiming to regain the overall title it won last time
in 1995, was one gold behind, and defending overall champion
Indonesia remained a distant third with 38 golds, 32 silvers and
53 bronzes.

Indonesian pencak silat athletes contributed three more gold
medals on the final day of the sport.

Newcomer Permata Kumalasari Ladowo upset home favorite Umi
Kalthum in the women's class A (45-50kgs). The bout was held
before 5,000 fans and Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, who expected to
see a win for Umi, who lit the Games cauldron in the opening
ceremony.

Veteran Ni Made Wahyuni defeated Nguyet Minh Le of Vietnam in
the women's class E (65-70 kilograms) to take the gold. Abas
Akbar landed Indonesia's third by beating Faudillah Hj Md Ghani
of Brunei in the men's class D (60-65kgs).

Albert Christiadi Sutanto was the country's saving grace in
the pool, winning the 200 meters butterfly in a new meet record
of 2:02.06. Albert, who also won Tuesday's 100m butterfly,
smashed Malaysian Lim Keng Liat's two-year-old mark of 02:02.90.

Indonesia is expecting to serve up more golds on the tennis
and badminton courts on Saturday.

In tennis, Indonesia set up an all-Indonesian final in the
women's doubles, pitting Liza Andriyani and Wukirasih Sawondari
against Wynne Prakusya and Romana Tedjakusuma.

Wynne also reached the women's singles final, where she meets
Maricris Fernandez of the Philippines.

In badminton, Indonesia has the chance to win four golds. One
was secured after Indonesian women's doubles pair Cynthia
Tuwankotta and compatriots Etty Tantri and Emma Ermawati and
Indarti Issoliana won their respective semifinals.

Taufik Hidayat, the 1999 All England runner-up, is to take on
Malaysian Wong Choon Han in the men's singles. Women's singles
Cindana Hartono will face Sujitra Eakmongkolpaisarn and men's
doubles Flandy Limpele and Eng Hian will face Pramote
Teerawiwatana and Tesana Pansisavas of Thailand.

Indonesia's soccer team will play Singapore in the match for
the bronze medal before Thailand and Vietnam fight for soccer
supremacy.

Disappointment

The National Sports Council (KONI) chairman, Wismoyo
Arismunandar, could not hide his disappointment at Indonesia's
worst performance in the Games since its debut in 1977.

"I'm very upset with the poor results because the number of
medals we won were far below expectation," he said on Friday.

KONI's pre-Games prediction was for Indonesia to retain the
overall title by winning nearly 70 golds. It focused attention
on arch-rival Thailand but underestimated surprisingly strong
Malaysia, which will host the next Games in Kuala Lumpur in 2001.

Wismoyo blamed the poor showing mostly on full body-contact
sports, which failed to retain their supremacy this year.

"Two years ago in pencak silat, Indonesia managed to scoop 17
golds. But this year we only won five of seven estimated golds. I
couldn't think of what's wrong in our sports development," said a
despondent Wismoyo.

Chef de mission Mochammad Hindarto emphasized that Indonesia
must change the athletes development system to focus on two
important sports, swimming and track and field.

"We could only manage to win five golds each in both events.
The figure was far from those of Thailand and Malaysia which
dominated both sports," he said.

Hindarto also faulted the lack of medals in the martial arts,
saying they were expected to cover Indonesia's weaknesses in both
sports.

"I think they suffered from a lack of preparation because they
only had three months of training. Two years ago they had nearly
one year to train."

Hindarto, who is also KONI's chief of athletes development,
urged sports organizations to start preparing their athletes for
future events.