RI's Asian Games gold medal drought eased on the water
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.