RI confident of beating Thailand to tennis gold

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia is optimistic of winning the golds in tennis despite the presence of Thailand's world-ranked-38 women's singles player, Tamarine Tanasugarn.

"We don't have any problems even if our players have to meet Tamarine," said tennis training director Benny Mailili yesterday.

Indonesian singles player Wynne Prakusya, whose world ranking is in the 600s, said: "I don't see any threats if Tamarine plays."

Indonesia will field Wynne and Wukirasih Sawondari in the team event singles. In the doubles, Indonesia is likely to play Wukirasih/Irawati Moerid Iskandar and Wynne/Liza Andriyani.

The four players were the country's Fed Cup team against Italy in July when Indonesia lost 0-5. Of the four only Irawati has joined the SEA Games team.

Benny said Indonesia had the opportunity to make a variety of doubles combinations because all the players had similar technical skills.

"I will set a sort of test tomorrow to decide the doubles," he said.

Thailand will field Tamarine and Suvimol Duangchan in the singles and Benjamas Sangaram and Marissa Niraj in the doubles.

Indonesia expects to win five of the seven golds on offer in the tennis competition.

Benny, however, also said that his players must also be aware of the Philippines' players.

He said that on the men's side, Indonesia would field the same players who played in the Davis Cup team.

Suwandi, the 1993 SEA Games gold medalist, and Andrian Raturandang will compete in the singles and Bonit Wiryawan/Sulistyo Wibowo will play in the doubles.

"It's more difficult to change the combinations on the men's side compared to the women's side," he said.

"Although we beat them in the Davis Cup early this year, we have to be aware of their skills because we will be playing on clay courts," Benny warned.

Thailand's track and field team, which will start to compete on Oct. 15, is convinced it will dominate the events, said team manager Anawin Pukdeejit yesterday.

"I am sure about our chances because Thailand has good and strong athletes," he said, adding that his team had hardly missed any invitations to compete in other countries.

Thailand expects to win at least seven gold medals on the track, the men's and women's 200 meters, the women's 400 meters, the women's 400 meters hurdles, the men's and women's 4x100 meters and the women's 800 meters.

Thailand sees Malaysia and the Philippines as its toughest opponents, with the host country somewhat less threatening.

Track and field

Thailand's tracks team would be like a time bomb which only needs time to explode and raze the gold medals with them, he said.

In the field events, Pukdeejit said Thailand hoped to win five gold medals from the six women's field events.

" We can only hope, you know, the athletes are young while the Philippines has a strong team," he said.

Expectations are highest in the high jump, shot putt, discus, javelin, and triple jump.

"We'll let the Philippines take the gold medal in the long jump. I know that it will go to Elma Mouros with her Chiang Mai record of 6:34," he said.

"Thailand's athlete doesn't have such a good record, Vacharee only has 5:80 as her best, still far behind," he added.

The optimism of the chief manager seemed to echo among the athletes.

The 21-year-old Worasit Vechaput, who is expected to get the gold in the men's 200m said that he had run since he was 10 years old.

"The 200 meters, is my specialty. My best time for that event is 21:07," he said proudly.

He also eyed the men's 4x100m relay, in which he will race with senior team mate Niti Piyapan.

Niti Piyapan said," Before the Games start, I think the chances are the same for all participants."

"But in my heart I believe that we'll get the most golds," he said. (04/yan)