Santia dedicates victory to late grandmother

Musthofid The Jakarta Post Hanoi

"I'm really happy that I could win a gold medal for the country. I'd love to present the victory to my late grandma," Santia Tri Kusuma, 22, told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the Individual Time Trial (ITT) on Sunday in Bac Ninh province.

Santia's success in Sunday's Criterium was only a few days shy of the 1,000th day anniversary of her grandmother's death. Even with her victory, she still felt sad that she could not observe the 1,000th day ritual, as it is known among the Indonesian Muslim community, as she was busy making her final preparations for the SEA Games.

"I wish I could have gone home two weeks before my departure. But I couldn't. Grandma was close to me. She knew my sport and always wished me luck whenever I was about to leave for competitions," she said, occasionally clenching her clothes around her neck to keep out the chilly wind.

Leading a 1-2 finish in the women's Criterium, she seemed to enjoy the novelty of the attention her victory brought, with members of the Indonesian squad stopping to shake her hand as they passed by.

Santia said her brother Priyo Susanto, also a member of the cycling delegation to Hanoi, was the one who had lured her into the world of cycling.

She first tried Mountain Bike (MTB), and won a silver medal in the 1997 SEA Games in Jakarta. Bad luck laid her effort to waste in Brunei the following two years, sidelining her with a flat tire.

She switched from MTB to track riding, and in her first SEA Games in the event, she bagged a gold medal in Kuala Lumpur. She kept her winning form in the Elimination event in Thailand's Asian Championships in 2002, and at the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, she claimed a bronze.

"I'm curious about continuing to a higher level. My obsession is to make it to the Olympics," said the Malang-born cyclist.

Looking ahead at possible sporting careers when she retires as an athlete, Santia said she would like to coach.

"I want to help Indonesian cycling deliver a better performance in the future."