RI's Asian Games gold medal drought eased on the water
Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Busan, South Korea
Indonesia was assured of just its second gold medal on Tuesday when windsurfer I Gusti Made Oka Sulaksana whose position atop the men's heavyweight mistral division was untouchable after the tenth of 11 races at the Busan Yachting Center.
Oka leads the pack with the least number of penalty points, 11, while Mo Zehai of China trails in second place with 14 and Japan's Kenzo Motokazu sits in third with 19 penalty points.
"Oka's position is already safe and the gold medal is already ours," manager Gurhadi Kartasasmita told reporters.
"It is unnecessary for him to sail in the last race on Wednesday because it will not affect the final result."
Gurhadi said that Tuesday's tenth race was a difficult one as the windsurfers had to start late in the afternoon. There were three races instead of two.
"The water was so cold, not to mention the wind. The current was also unpredictable. But luckily Oka weathered it all," he said.
Oka is the defending champion after winning gold at the Bangkok 1998 Asiad.
The organizing committee canceled the seventh race on Monday citing "technical mistakes on buoy placement". This caused the eighth race to be recognized as the seventh race.
Gurhadi, however, said he was disappointed with Fadly Faisal who was competing in the men's lightweight division. Fadly finished dead last, yet was projected to take home the bronze.
Meanwhile at the Geumjeon Tennis Stadium in the Geumjeon Sports Complex, Indonesian women's tennis players Angelique Widjaja and Wynne Adiati Prakusya cruised to the quarterfinals after winning their individual singles matches.
Angie, as Angelique is widely known, nearly shut out Hsieh Su- wei of Chinese Taipei on Tuesday, 6-0, 6-2.
Angie, seeded fourth here, will next face Japan's Shinobu Asagoe who defeated India's Nirupama Vaidyanathan 6-1, 6-0.
Meanwhile, sixth seed Wynne had to work hard before defeating another Chinese Taipei player, Wang I-ting 6-4, 7-6 (7-1). She will now meet second seed Iroda Tulyaganova of Uzbekistan.
Indonesian men's doubles pair of Suwandi and Peter Handoyo also advanced, defeating Thailand's pair of Attapol Rithiwatanapol and Vittaya Samprej 6-2, 6-3.
The Indonesians will meet Koreans Kim Dong-yun and Kwon Oh- hee, who are seeded fourth here.
The women's doubles team of Lisa Andriyani and Wukirasih Sawondari were beaten 6-4, 6-4 by Yan Yi and Zhang Jie of China.
With a bye on Tuesday, Angie and Wynne will team up to challenge another Chinese duo, Li Ting and Sun Tian-tian.
Wynne and Angie, who were magnificent in the women's team final, are also expected to capture the doubles gold medal.
Separately, Indonesian chef-de-mission Rudolf S. Warouw said he was still confident that the target of six gold medals would be achieved as there were several more good opportunities.
"We will reach better results than the Bangkok 1998 Asiad. Badminton, for example, is still upcoming," he said.
Indonesia expects more gold on Wednesday in the men's badminton team final against South Korea.
The individual events start on Thursday with final stages slated for Sunday and Monday.
Men's doubles and mixed doubles shuttlers are also expected to produce some gold.