Onyas leads West Java to championship

Onyas leads West Java to championship

Musthofid
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

West Java retained the tae kwon do national championship after
winning nine gold medals in the four-day LG Cup, which ended on
Sunday at the Bung Karno Tennis Indoor Hall here.

The champion also added four silvers and a bronze to its
collection.

Jakarta finished in second place with four gold, two silver
and four bronze medals followed by East Java in third with a gold
and four bronzes.

Out of the 26 participating provinces, nine ended up the
competition without a medal.

Onyas Nurmala, a national squad member for the 2002 Asian
Games, led West Java's triumphant round-off of the competition
with a victory in the women's lightweight division.

Onyas was too strong for Susan Oktaria, winning the final
match 9-5. Lambok Parulian took the other gold after beating
Andre Darwin of Central Java in the men's finweight final.

Lambok, who was the late replacement of 2001 gold medalist
Imam Dalam, was involved in a tight match with Andre but the West
Javanese was declared the winner for playing more aggressive.

West Java could have brought the collection to ten, but Bayu
Firmansyah was narrowly beaten by Yanuardo G.S. of Jakarta 5-4 in
the final match of the men's lightweight.

In the women's finweight final, Sri Sartika beat Regina Maya
of Central Java to earn Yogyakarta its only gold medal. The match
was again decided on aggressivity after the two athletes evened
the score at 3-3.

Oh Il Nam, technical advisor of the national squad, attributed
West Java's success to its consistency in athletes' development.

"They do not have exceptionally remarkable skills. Their
technics and tactics are generally on par with others. They just
appear to have prepared a sound workout before the match," Oh
told reporters.

"The fact that they have drilled more frequently either in
local competition or in a routine training gives them merit," he
said.

West Java's team coach Defie said that the team, which
comprised those shining at a local competition, had trained for a
month and half ahead of the tournament.

"We have a talent-scouting team which the task of monitoring
potential athletes," he told The Jakarta Post. "The current squad
members are made up of old and new faces with the composition
being fifty-fifty," he said, added that the team was looking
ahead in Palembang, South Sumatra, where the National
Championship will be held in 2004.

Oh deplored a bit less competitiveness of the tournament due
to the absence of some of the national athletes. "If the had
taken part the tournament would have been much tighter," he said.

"Not only would the average players get good experience
against international-class athletes but the national members
would also have been able to gauge their skills before their
departure to Busan," he added.

Busan, South Korea, is the venue of the 2002 Asian Games to
which the Indonesian Tae kwon do Association (TI) is currently
preparing eight athletes for the competition.