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.