Nurhayati expected to win SEA Games cycling gold
Nurhayati expected to win SEA Games cycling gold
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia is placing its gold medal hopes in the 18th Southeast Asian Games cycling competitions on top national female rider Nurhayati, who had an impressive showing at the world championships in Manila over the weekend.
Nurhayati brought home a silver and a bronze in Manila, adding to the Indonesian team's medal collection, which is now a silver and two bronzes.
The cyclist finished second behind a Chinese rider in the 40km point race. She also came in third in the 500m individual time trial after two Japanese cyclists.
"These results imply that we're the strongest among the other Southeast Asian countries in those two events," Husein Argasasmita, secretary general of the Indonesian Cycling Association (ISI), said on Saturday.
However, the Dec. 9-17 SEA Games in Chiang Mai, Thailand, will not feature the two events. The cycling events for women to be contested at the Games are the 3,000m individual pursuit, 25km individual time trial, 50km team time trial and 70km individual open road race.
Host Thailand has canceled the 70km team open road race, at which the Indonesian women's team has so far done commendably.
"So, we hope that Nurhayati will earn some gold medals in the individual events only," he told The Jakarta Post. In the last SEA Games in Singapore two years ago, Nurhayati triumphed in the 60km individual road race to give Indonesia its only cycling gold.
In addition to Nurhayati, Indonesia fielded its male team of Herry Janto Setiawan, Andry Sudrajat and Nurrochman at the Manila world championships. Nurrochman won the bronze medal in the men's keirin.
But the keirin event, in which a motorbike is used to accelerate the bicycle's speed during the first five rounds, will also be absent from the upcoming SEA Games.
The men's cycling events at the Games are the 1,000m sprint, 1,000 individual time trial, 4,000m individual pursuit, 4,000m team pursuit, 50km individual time trial road race, 100km team time trial and the 173km individual open road race.
"We hope Nurrochman, Andri and Herry will medal in the sprint events. I believe their toughest opponent will be Malaysia's Roosman Alwi," Husein said.
Husein expressed his guarded optimism when asked if Herry could win in the 1,000m individual time trial. Herry's latest record in that event was a third-place finish in the Asian Cycling Championship in Ipoh, Malaysia, two years ago.
The world championships in Manila will be concluded on Wednesday. The Indonesian team, which took part only in the tracks events, went home on Saturday. (arf)