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.