RI, Malaysia halt Vietnam's gold rush

RI, Malaysia halt Vietnam's gold rush

The Jakarta Post, Hanoi

Bambang Maulidin and Jenny Zeannet became the next two Indonesian
gold medalists in karate as Vietnam's domination was cracked on
the closing day of the competition on Monday.

Malaysia took two golds, while Vietnam had to be content with
adding only one more to its treasure trove.

Vietnam finished the karate competition with an overall 12
gold medals, compared to Indonesia's four. Umar Syarif and Hassan
Basri had claimed the first two golds.

Team manager Ahmad Boedoe was still left ruing the missed
chance he put down to "being unlucky".

"Two honorary judges from Australia said Indonesia deserved
eight gold medals. So did the head of the Vietnamese Karate
Association," he said.

Bambang, who competed in the men's under-55 kg kumite, scraped
to a 1-0 victory over Puvaneswaran Ramasamy of Malaysia, while
Jenny beat Babilore Marna of the Philippines 2-0 in the women's
under-53 kg kumite.

Indonesia could have added another two golds, but Arif Taufan
Sayamsudin, who fought in the men's under-60 kg category, and
Beatrice Payung, in the women's open weight, were both floored by
their opponents.

Arif was caught out early against home hopeful Vo Manh Tuan
with a bloody nose. Although he was given a point in his favor,
he seemed unable to shrug off the effect of the minor injury as
he limped through the remainder of the match.

Beatrice, on the other hand, was completely overpowered by
Prenilla Subramaniam of Malaysia in a 2-7 loss.

Mahendran Subramaniam won the final gold for Malaysia in the
men's open weight division, in which he won 2-1 over Fadila bin
Sanif -- with Brunei yet again coming up empty of its first gold
medal at the SEA Games.