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.