No more medals for Indonesia as Juana crashes
No more medals for Indonesia as Juana crashes
By Primastuti Handayani
SYDNEY (JP): The second-round defeat of Juana Wangsa Putri in
the 49kg division of women's taekwondo on Wednesday virtually
buried Indonesia's hopes of adding medals to its collection.
Asian Games silver medalist Juana was expected to win at least
the bronze in the South Korean martial art that was making its
Olympic debut before reality hit. Lacking initiative, the
Indonesian crashed out with a 2-7 loss to Hanne Hoegh Poulsen of
Denmark, the 1998 world junior champion in the 47kg category.
Poulsen had sprang a surprise in the first round by beating
favorite Kay Poe of the United States 4-3. Juana received a bye.
After playing a cautious game, Poulsen charged Juana with a
flurry of attacks which left Juana on the receiving end. To make
things worse, Juwana received a warning from Venezuelan referee
Martin Ramon Blanco for a foul.
Poulsen's endless efforts again paid off in the final minutes
as she collected two more points to stretch her lead and win the
match.
Juana burst into tears after the panel of judges scored in
favor of the Dane. National Sports Council (KONI) chairman
Wismoyo Arismunandar and the Indonesian team's chef de mission
Arie Sudewo proceeded to the court to console the 23-year-old
athlete.
"I couldn't concentrate as the three umpires didn't count lots
of my kicks," she said amid her sobs after the match.
The Indonesian Taekwondo Association (TI) secretary-general,
Andreas Lumandow, expressed his disappointment with the result.
"Juana was very tense during the bout and that influenced her
performance. She couldn't fight it out. Actually we hoped she
would finish at least fourth on the overall," he said.
Juana did not have a second chance to compete in the repechage
as Poulsen was beaten by Lauren Burns of Australia 0-1 in the
semifinals. Burns eventually won the gold, the first for host
Australia, after downing Urbia Melendez Rodriguez of Cuba 4-2 in
the final.
Burns, who won the world championship bronze medal in 1997 and
the U.S. Open last year, had beaten world 47kg champion Chi Shu-
Ju of Taiwan in the quarterfinals.
In the men's 58kg final, Michail Mouroutsos of Greece took out
Spain's Gabriel Esparza 4-2, while third spot went to Huang Chih-
hsiung of Taiwan who overcame Gabriel Alberto Taraburelli of
Argentina 3-0.
Indonesia's contention for medals received a further blow as
its representative in the women's 3m springboard diving, Eka
Purnama Indah, managed only to finish second from the bottom in
the 43-field competition.
Eka collected a total of 178.83 points, far from the three top
finishers Fu Mingxia of China with 342.75, Guo Jingjing of China
with 332.67 and Ioulia Pakhalina of Russia with 316.08.
Men's springboard diver Muhammad Nasrullah and men's 4x100
meters relay team are the only Indonesian athletes left in the
medal chase.