Papua overal champs at nat'l athletics meet
Papua overal champs at nat'l athletics meet
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Papua emerged as the overall champions with eight gold, two
silver and four bronze medals at the three-day national athletics
championship that ended here on Saturday.
The medal collection surpassed overnight leaders East Java,
which ended in second with seven gold, two silver and seven
bronze medals.
West Java took home 5-5-6 to finish overall third, followed by
Jakarta with 5-2-4 and defending champion Central Java with 4-9-
4.
About 400 athletes from 30 provinces participated in the
championships at Madya Stadium in Central Jakarta.
Aceh, Jambi, South Kalimantan, North Sulawesi and Southeast
Sulawesi returned home empty-handed from the event, which saw
very few records fall.
Olivia Sadi of East Nusa Tenggara was only one of two athletes
at the championships to break a national record. Her time of four
minutes, 19.48 seconds in the 1,500-meter race shattered the old
mark of 4:21.50, set by Supriati Sutono in 1997.
Olivia surprised herself with the performance.
"I did not expect to break the national record, although my
coach was optimistic," said Olivia, who received a bonus of Rp 15
million (US$1,500) and motorcycle for the feat.
In Saturday's finals, Sukari of East Java and Deysie Sumigar
of North Sulawesi took the men's and women's 100-meter titles,
respectively.
Sukari clocked a time of 10.87 seconds to outpace West Java's
Subakir, who finished in a time of 10.94 seconds.
Deysie easily outpaced Supiati of East Nusa Tenggara and Irene
T. Yoseph of Jakarta in taking the title. But her time of 11.73
seconds was still 0.17 seconds off of Irene's national record of
11.56 seconds.
But that did not take the gloss off Deysie's victory. "Thank
God I won," Deysie beamed.
The championship, which featured 40 events, also served as a
barometer for national athletes preparing for the upcoming
Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
The Indonesian Amateur Athletics Association (PASI) had warned
that subpar performances could result in athletes being expelled
from the national training center.
There are currently about 50 athletes training at the national
center for the SEA Games, but that number is likely to fall after
the championships.
"We will announce those athletes who performed poorly and are
being removed from the national training center on Monday or
Tuesday," PASI official Budi Dharma Sidi said.