Olympian Krisna Bayu earns judo gold for South Sumatra

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Palembang

Krisna Bayu, whose Olympic hopes in Athens were crushed in the first stage, gave South Sumatra a gold medal in the men's under- 100 kilogram of judo competition at the 16th National Games (PON) here on Friday.

Confident Krisna was too strong for Gandung N.S. of Jakarta, defeating his opponent with an overwhelming victory in the match which only lasted 57 seconds.

"Well I was confident about winning this bout. I think that in Indonesia I am still the best as my opponents do not practice seriously," said Krisna, who formerly represented Central Java.

"This gold is for South Sumatra, which has taken care of me well."

The victory has given him a collection of seven gold medals in four National Games.

Gandung took the defeat in stride, saying that he just could not find ways to match Krisna.

"He was always able to grab my clothes and I could not stop him," said Gandung, who has never won in their 11 meetings to date.

"It is too difficult to beat him. He is the best," he said.

Ida Bagus A of Bali and Ariyanto of Central Java won the bronze in the tournament which had just nine entrants in that weight class.

Krisna, who lost to Mongolian Tsend-Ayush Ochirbat in the first round in Athens, will try to add to the collection when he takes to the freestyle category and team match.

Other classes in the final stage included, men's +100 kilogram, women's 70 kilogram, and women's +78 kilogram.

Deni Z of North Sumatra beat Niki Maretama of Jakarta to win the men's +100 kilogram gold.

He erupted in exultation after the win over his much bigger opponent.

He scored one yuko and two kokas compared to Niki's one koka to make amends for his failure in Surabaya where his bid crashed at the hands of I Nyoman S. of West Java in the final.

Ridwan Krisbianto of East Kalimantan and Andreas Tedja of South Sumatra had to be content with a bronze each.

In the women's +78 kilogram, Ira Purnamasari of West Java did not have difficulty with Livia S. of Lampung, winning in 40 seconds to claim the gold medal.

The bronzes went to Fanny Pie of South Sulawesi and Sugiarti of Jakarta.

In women's 70 kilogram, Cliffia Sulisto of Jakarta won the gold after beating Hanna Yawan of Papua in the final bout with Liliek Rusetiawati of Jakarta and Remiwati of Bangka-Belitung bringing home the bronzes.

The judo competition will play offer another four gold medals in the men's under-90 kilogram, under-81 kilogram, women's under- 70 kilogram, and under-63 kilogram on Saturday.