'Silat', badminton save day for Indonesia

Sun, 17 Dec 1995

By Dwiatmanta

CHIANG MAI, Thailand (JP): Pencak silat and badminton saved the day for Indonesia in the Southeast Asia Games, as Thailand was formally declared the outright overall champion yesterday.

Dethroned and humiliated, Indonesia salvaged its pride by grabbing eight golds from pencak silat, a traditional martial art that had its origins in Indonesia, and four from badminton, a sport in which Indonesia has dominated the world scene.

These, together with other victories in a few other sports, brought Indonesia's tally of gold on the penultimate day of the competition to a decent 76, still way behind Thailand's 143.

It was not a complete sweep in either silat, where Indonesia was represented in 12 of the 15 finals, or badminton, as officials had expected at the start of the day.

"We are no longer the sole superpower in pencak silat," Eddy Nalapraya, the chairman of the National Pencak Silat Association, conceded, pointing out that this was the price Indonesia is having to pay after vigorously promoting the sport worldwide during the last decade.

Among the winners were Mohammad Asdar in the 45-50kg category, Wandi Suwandi in the 50-55 kg and Taslim Azis in the 70-75kg, while Utoyo Trias Puso in the 75-80kg and Zainuddin in the Open category were two of yesterday's Indonesian losers.

In badminton, the world men's double champion Riky Subagdja/Rexy Mainaky suffered an upset defeat to deny Indonesia a clean sweep of the five gold medals that were at stake yesterday.

Indonesia managed two golds from table tennis despite fielding finalists in all five finals. The two golds were contributed by Mohamad Al Arkam and Deddy Dacosta in the men's double and Rossy Pratiwi and Mulasih in the women's double.

Rossy lost to Singapore's Hing Jung Hong in the women's single while Hadiyudo Prajitno lost the men's single final to Vietnam's Vu Mahn Cuong. In mixed doubles, Anton Suseno and Mulutsih were defeated by Singapore's pair of Sen Yew Fai and Jing Jung Hong.

Indonesia swept both the men's and women's epee team events, beating Thailand and the Philippines team respectively.

Indonesian rowers paddled their way into three more golds, making it the only sport in which Indonesia made a clean sweep.

After winning four numbers on Friday, Indonesia yesterday took the women's 800-meter (20 paddler), the men's 800-m 10-men regatta, and the 20-manned traditional boat race.

Meanwhile, host Thailand, already declared the winner, continued their winning ways, adding golds in the prestigious sports to put the icing on the cake.

They won the soccer gold beating Vietnam 4-0 through two goals each by Sripan Tawan and Sritong-in Natipong in the finals last night.

Thai men and women spikers claimed both volleyball golds at the expense of Myanmar and the Philippines respectively, and also both men's and women's singles tennis golds.

The Thais laid the foundation for their success by dominating gold-rich events such as swimming, where they won 22 out of 38 golds, shooting with 19 out of 34, and athletics with 21 out of 45. The hosts also won all but six of the gymnastics titles, along with nine out of a possible 19 in weightlifting. Along the way they made inroads in previous preserves of Indonesia, the traditional sports power in Southeast Asia.

Some key injuries and bad luck hounded the rest of the field, who were otherwise simply outclassed.

The Thais will likely have another reason to celebrate just before the competition ends today.

All the 12 boxing finals have been saved for last, and given Thailand's international record in boxing, they are likely to come away with a handful more golds today.

Thailand is represented in all but one of the finals. Indonesia is fielding four finalists.