RI wins 10 more golds at Arafura Games

By Primastuti Handayani

DARWIN, Australia (JP): Indonesia won 10 golds and one bronze on the seventh day of the Arafura Games, which end tonight.

Indonesia's gymnast starlet Helda Sulistina won her second gold in the vault event yesterday at the Darwin High School arena.

The 12-year-old Helda earned 8.675 points, followed by Malaysian Yap Yee Yin with 8.450 points and Helda's senior Nurfiana Akhmadi came third with 8.275 points.

"I'm satisfied with Helda's performance. She displayed good maneuvers today despite her knee injury. It's her second international experience and she has two golds already. That's a good start for her. She's a very precious girl," Indonesia's Russian coach Ioury Kouznetzov said.

Sherly Novitasari won gold on the floor where she performed beautifully to collect 8.466 points. Malaysian Chang Zhi Wei came second with 8.166 points and the Northern Territory's Julia Hansen was third with 7.900.

The Northern Territory's Kate Lam took the gold on the uneven bars with 7.999 while Victorians Ebony Keltie and Felicity West took the silver and bronze respectively with 7.566 and 7.333 points.

Malsysia's Ooi Ling Sze took gold on the balance beam with 8.100 points while compatriot Chang Zhi Wei took silver with 8.000 and Stacey Weston bronze with 7.850 points.

National second and third string shuttlers made a clean sweep in badminton at the Nightcliff High School arena to add five golds. Four of the matches were all-Indonesian-finals.

Hendrawan easily beat compatriot Nunung Subandoro 15-9, 15-3 in the men's singles.

Lydia Djaelawidjaja beat junior Yuli Marfuah 11-6, 11-1 in the women's singles.

Mixed doubles pair Nonong DZ/Seng Kok Keong had no trouble overcoming Carmelita/Rudy Wijaya 15-6, 15-3.

The women's pair of Nonong DZ/Carmelita were tested in the first game but still beat the new partnership of Lydia/Yuli 17- 14. They won the second set 15-3.

In the non-all-Indonesian men's doubles final, Rudy/Seng had to work hard to beat Singapore's Patrick Lau/Tan Sian Peng 6-15, 15-5, 15-5.

Softball

Indonesia's women's team plays Chinese Taipei in today's softball finals after beating the Northern Territory 2-0 at the Gardens Oval.

Carrin Garimurti scored in the third innings.

Teammate Teti Widawati hit another in the fifth innings.

The men's team beat Brunei Darussalam in a game where both teams started nervously with no score until the third innings.

In the fourth innings, captain Tony Pratono, Djuhari and Hardi Purnama returned to the home base for three runs, thanks to Dondi Apriliandi's hard hit.

Lukmanul Hakim added another in the fifth innings while Edi Zubaedi, Rafli Mustafa and Dondy added three more to complete Indonesia's victory.

Indonesia play the Northern Territory in today's final which is the last gold on offer.

Indonesian boxers won three more golds at the Italian Club in the Marrara Sports Complex.

Damianus Jordan beat South Africa's Ransxa with a technical knockout in the second round of the 48-kilogram class final.

Wilpare Jamhur beat Ricarte Mancano of Mindanao, the Phillipines, 5-0 in the 60-kilogram class, while Meckzon Barataman beat New Zealand's David Blair 5-0 in the 63.5-kilogram class.