Nerves spoil Kuswantoro's battle in archery

Nerves spoil Kuswantoro's battle in archery

The Jakarta Post, Hanoi

The mood of the Indonesian archery team at the National Sports
Training Center, about 15 kilometers west of downtown Hanoi, was
in marked contrast on Thursday compared to its joyous mood on
Wednesday.

After celebrating victory in the women's individual event on
Wednesday, the team failed to take a medal in the men's event as
Kuswantoro, Indonesia's best prospect, suffered an upset defeat
in the quarterfinals.

Kuswantoro lost to Loh Wen Liang of Singapore by only a one-
point margin of 106-107, a shock loss that the Indonesian blamed
on nerves.

"I was really nervous, which caused me to lose my
concentration," he told reporters after the match.

Things started badly for Kuswantoro when he stumbled to a
distant four margin in the first of four shots during his match
against Loh.

The Indonesian trailed 25-29 early on and although he reduced
the gap to 79-80 after the third shot, Loh clung to his narrow
lead right to the very end.

Despite the loss, the Indonesian camp did not look overly
disappointed as they were still euphoric over the previous
victory.

"What more can I say. Nerves got the better of him. That's the
nature of the archery game. It can happen to any archer," coach
Donald Pandiangan said.

Dudi Arfil, the deputy secretary-general of the Indonesian
Archery Association (Perpani), said the unfancied Loh had played
a nothing-to-lose game throughout.

"We had expected Kuswantoro to win a medal. But it appeared
that he came up with an unexpectedly good opponent in Loh," he
said.

The Singaporean cruised through to the final where he lost to
Muhammad Marbawi Sulaiman of Malaysia 102-104 to take the silver.
The bronze went to Florente Matan, who beat Tun Lin Aung of
Myanmar 108-103.

Indonesia was triumphant on Wednesday after Rina Puspita Sari
won the women's individual by beating Mon Redee of Malaysia in
the final. Her teammate Rusena Galanteh doubled the honors by
taking the bronze.