Poor performance by Indonesia's martial artists
Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Busan, South Korea
Indonesian martial artists failed to fulfill their target at the Busan 2002 Asian Games, securing only one bronze medal from five events on Friday at the Gudeok Gymnasium in the Gudeok Sports Complex.
Senior tae kwon doin Juana Wangsa Putri contributed Indonesia's only medal on the 13th day of the quadrennial sporting event from the women's under-51-kilogram flyweight division.
Juana was defeated 3-6 in the semifinals by Boorapolchai Yaowapa of Thailand. The Thai was then defeated by South Korea's Lim Su-jung in the final match. Cordero Daleen of the Philippines got the other bronze medal after being outclassed 0-5 by Lim in the semifinals.
Earlier on Thursday, tae kwon doin Muhammad Dalam Imam contributed a bronze medal in the men's under-54-kilogram finweight division.
There were three other tae kwon doins taking part in Friday's matches.
The final match between Lim and Boorapolchai ended in a 3-3 tie but Lim won on fighting aggressiveness and superiority.
Another women's tae kwon doin, Sinta Berliana Heru, was outperformed 1-5 by Luo Wei of China in the under-67-kilogram welterweight division.
Satrio Rahadani provided the largest upset when he lost 4-7 to Mohammed A. Al-Anuzi of Saudi Arabia in the first round of their match.
Satrio spent two years of training in a Korean tae kwon do institute to sharpen his kicking.
Another upset was suffered by Basuki Nugroho who was fighting in the men's under-78-kilogram welterweight division.
Basuki was defeated 14-17 by Abdulhamid Atalla of Qatar also in the first round.
Team manager Suwandi Gunawan, however, said Satrio's defeat was acceptable as his opponent showed clear superiority during the match.
"But we can't accept Basuki's defeat as the judges were clearly in favor of the Qatari," he said.
"Look at the final score. It is impossible that such a score could be achieved in an event like the Asian Games.
"This is the scoring record during the tournament."
Separately in the Yangsan College Gymnasium in the neighboring city of Yangsan, Indonesia suffered another major blow when karateka Jenny Zeannet Lolong failed to grab a single medal although she was expected to reach the final stage.
"I am very disappointed with the result. Please forgive me because I failed to contribute a medal," Jenny said while holding back her tears.
"I was not patient enough during the repechage match and my opponent took the advantage."
In the repechage round, Jenny was defeated by Hsieh Ai-chien of Chinese Taipei in their struggle for the bronze medal.
Jenny started well in the first round with a 8-1 win over Asma Khaled of the UAE but was stopped 2-6 by Kim Anh Vu of Vietnam.
Kim defeated Hsieh 3-2 in the first round. Kim was the eventual winner after defeating Japan's Fujioka Eri 5-4 to win the gold medal.
Coach Muhammad Gusti said Jenny failed to follow his instructions to save her geri (kick) techniques until the right moment.
"Jenny attacked Hsieh with her geri instead."
Team manager Tono Soe'oed, however, said there were still chances for Indonesian karatekas to contribute some medals.
"We have four karatekas fighting in Saturday's matches. Let's hope they will be able to grab a medal or two," he said.
Bambang Mauludin will face Chi Lat Wan of Macau in the men's under-55-kilogram weightclass and Arief Taufan Syamsuddin is to challenge Japan's Kenichi Imai in the men's under-60-kilogram weightclass.
Meanwhile, Hasan Basri is slated to fight Umid Hakimov of Uzbekistan in the men's under-65-kilogram weightclass and Sonny Simangasing to challenge host Min Kyu in the men's under-70- kilogram weightclass.