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.