RI marches on as records fall
JAKARTA (JP): It was a reversal of fortunes for Indonesia and Thailand in the swimming pool yesterday in the 19th Southeast Asian Games, on an action-packed day which saw a new world record in weight lifting.
Four gold medals from Richard Sam Bera, Rita Mariani, Felix Susanto and the women's quartet of Chaterine Surya, Elsa Manora Nasution, Meitri Widya Pangestika and Sylvi Triana more than made amends for the host's disappointing performance in the opener on Sunday.
The golden splash helped take Indonesia's medals tally to 41 golds, 20 silvers and 25 bronzes to extend its lead over arch rival Thailand in the medal hunt. The defending overall champion, Thailand, has so far collected 16 golds, 18 silvers and 21 bronzes. The Philippines is next on eight golds, 13 silvers and 20 bronzes.
All 10 participating countries have now joined the medal- winning club after Laos bagged three bronzes from canoeing and taekwondo, Cambodia bagged one bronze in taekwondo and Brunei took a track and field bronze yesterday.
Indonesia's buoyant chief of mission Togi Hutagaol hailed his squad for doing so well in the first two days of competition.
"We predicted that 27 golds would have gone to us by now. So some of the laurels were unexpected. But in several sports, such as billiards and snooker, we failed."
He said illness had cost Indonesia two golds in wrestling. Indonesia's best bet in the 48-kilogram greco-roman style, Herman, pulled out due to him suffering from typhoid, and was replaced by Deddy Damhudi who had to settle with the silver.
Another first choice, John Lie was dropped from the list due to dengue fever.
Swimmer Richard clocked a sub-par 51.84 seconds but it was enough to retain his favored 100 meter freestyle title, beating Philippine main rival Raymond Papa in the process. Richard's four-year-old Games record of 51.31 remains intact for at least two years.
It was Rita and Felix who produced the biggest upsets of the day, sinking pool queen Joscelin Yeo of Singapore and king Ratapong Sirisanont of Thailand in nerve-wracking races.
Rita swam 1:11.96 in the women's 100 meter breaststroke to beat record holder and defending champion Yeo, who came a surprising third in 1:14.67 behind Philippine swimmer Kathy Echiverri.
Felix outpaced title holder and record holder Ratapong in the men's 200 meter individual medley in 2:06.14.
Thailand's swimmers, who romped home with four out of the six golds up for grabs on Sunday, won a consolation gold in the women's 400 meter freestyle through Ravee
The biennial regional sporting event finally saw a world record shattered when Thailand's Khassaraponn Suta hoisted 125 kgs in the women's 59 kilogram division. Her clean and jerk lift beat the one-year-old world mark set by China's Xiu Xiongying by one kilogram.
Suta's total lift of 217.5 kgs entered the SEA Games record book but was 2.5 kgs short of the world mark.
Two other meet records came in track and field, where Indonesian Supriati Sutono narrowly won the 5,000m in 16:11.6 and Malaysian 110m hurdler Nur Herman Majid clocked 14.09 seconds.
Indonesian wrestlers also weighed in with two gold medals. Suryadi Gunawan and Robert Kabery won the 54 kgs and 85 kgs categories respectively.
Early in the day Indonesia's kayakers and canoeists completed their expected clean sweep of medals, taking the last six on offer.