Malaysians and Thais share the spoils in athletics
By Meidyatama Suryodiningrat
JAKARTA (JP): Malaysian sprinter Shanti Govindasamy confirmed her status as the fastest woman in the region yesterday when she won the 200 meters gold medal, three days after her victory in the 100m.
Crossing the line in 23.49 seconds, Shanti again overcame her two arch rivals - Thailand's Dokjun Dokduang and Myanmar's Htay Than Than - who had also tailed her closely in the shorter sprint on Tuesday.
"I'm quite satisfied, it was a good win," said the 30-year-old Malaysian mother.
But her time was still far off the SEA Games record of 23.37 set by Filipina Lydia De Vega in 1993.
Dokjun finished second yesterday after getting the bronze in the 100m, while Htay dropped a place after her silver medal performance on Tuesday.
Malaysia and Thailand ruled the fourth day of the track and field, shutting out the host country who performed miserably in all nine gold-medal events.
Thailand went home with a hefty collection of four golds, five silvers and two bronzes, while Malaysia ended the day with four gold medals, one silver and two bronzes.
Indonesia's athletes looked out of their class yesterday, often finishing in the bottom two and were lucky to get a silver and three bronzes, the silver coming from Yanis Raubaba in the men's 200m.
With just 10 of the 44 medals still up for grabs, supremacy for the track and field event looks to be a struggle between Malaysia which has won 13 golds and Thailand which has 11.
Indonesia has five gold medals, the Philippines three and Singapore two.
The second Malaysian gold also came from a double gold medalist, Ramachandran Murusamy, who easily won the 5,000m against a weak field in 14 minutes 22.67 seconds.
The Malaysian did not have to show his best form and was able to jog in comfortably as the rest of the field straddled in well over 20 meters behind. Ramachandran himself holds the Games record of 14:08.97.
Earlier this week he grabbed the 10,000m gold. This is his sixth SEA Games gold medal overall, after first competing in the 1993 Games in Singapore.
After the victory he said he was looking forward to some time off from training and competition. "In 10 years of running I've never had a break. Now I'd like to relax."
The final two Malaysian winners were Ronzi Bakar in the men's 400m and Manimag Nadarajah in the women's 400m.
Two of the four Thai gold medalists were record breakers yesterday as Reawade Watanasin broke the women's 100m hurdles and Jutaporn Krasaeyan broke the women's shot put record.
Reawade crossed the line in 13.23 seconds, much quicker than the old record of 13.66 set by Lydia De Vega 1991.
In the women's shot put no one even came close to challenging Jutaporn, who had already won the gold in the discuss.
Despite fouling three of her six throws, her worst throw, 16.17 meters, would still have been enough for first. Her best throw, 17.25 meters, was 69 centimeters farther than the old record held by Thai Sunisa Yoo Yao.
Thailand's Wacharee Rittiwat won the women's triple jump with 13.32m and compatriot Worasie Vechaehut won the men's 200m.
The only gold not grabbed by a Thai or Malaysian was the men's discuss, which was won by Singapore's Tuck Yim Wong. He hurled the disc 52.18 meters to break the six-year Games record of 52.10 held by Filipino Fidel Repizo.