National athletes fail to better records
JAKARTA (JP): National athletes preparing for the Kuala Lumpur Southeast Asian (SEA) Games failed to sharpen their personal bests during the second leg of the National Athletics Grand Prix at the Madya Stadium in the Bung Karno Sports Complex on Sunday.
Indonesian gold-medal hope in the Games, women's pole vaulter Ni Putu Desi Margawati of West Nusa Tenggara flopped to match her national record of 4.00 meters set at the National Athletics Championships on June 20. She only jumped 3.80 meter, 0.1 meter shorter than her result during the first leg on July 1.
"I'm sorry for being unable to fulfill your expectations of a better performance. I have yet to adapt to my new 4.30-meter pole because I haven't used it with the bar attached yet," she told The Jakarta Post after the event.
"My old four-meter pole was broken during training on Saturday morning and I had no choice but to use the new pole. I could still heard the cracking sound of the breaking pole which disturbed my concentration today."
Desi said the main problem with the new pole was trying to pick the right time to swing over the bar.
"I have to wait until the new pole stops before swinging whereas with the old pole I had to swing right away. There is still time to improve my techniques before competing in the Malaysia Open from July 27 until 29," she said.
"With the new pole I'm sure that I can reach 4.10 meter to make up for my failure today."
Coming in second was Emlina of Jakarta with 3.50 meters, followed by Alia Basalamah also with 3.50 meters. Emlina took second place as she made the height on the first attempt while Alia needed three attempts to reach the height.
Women's hammer thrower Yurita Ariani of Jakarta, another gold medal hope, only threw 49.92 meter compared to her national record of 50.39 meters. It was, however, better than her result during the first leg at 49.26 meter.
"I could throw 50.50 during training but today the hammer seemed not to be in good condition. The cable was already deformed and no longer straight," she said after her throw.
"A deformed cable means a shorter distance, making it harder to swing and control the hammer."
Nia Meilani of West Java finished second after sending the hammer 46.72 meters and Rosa Herlinda was third with 45.58 meters.
Both events are the latest to be introduced to the Sept. 8 to Sept. 17 Games.
SEA Games defending champion Nunung Jayadi of Jakarta failed to leap 5.11 meters in his attempt to break his own national record of 5.10-meters in the men's pole vault event. He still managed to finish first with 5.00 meters. Coming second was teammate and Nunung's younger brother Saini with 4.30 meter.
High jumper Aria Yuniawan from West Nusa Tenggara also failed to improve on his record by only leaping 2.00 meters, 0.8 meters shorter than his national record created at the National Athletics Championships on June 19.
Diding Rutopo of West Java was second with 1.95 meters followed by Ade of Central Java with 1.85 meters. (nvn)