Sony beats Wong for men's title; Wong Mew Choo wins women's

Sony beats Wong for men's title; Wong Mew Choo wins women's gold John Pye Associated Press Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Top-seeded Sony Dwi Kuncoro collected his second badminton gold medal for Indonesia at the 22nd Southeast Asian Games on the back of a 10-point run in Friday's 15-8, 15-5 final win against world No. 4 Wong Choong Hann.

Wong Mew Choo became the first Malaysian winner of the women's singles title since 1975 with an 11-5, 11-5 win over Thailand's Salakjit Ponsana in the subsequent match.

The 20-year-old Wong, No. 102 in the international women's rankings, had upset top-seeded Li Li of Singapore in the semifinals.

Wong, who hadn't been past the round of 16 in any major tournament in the last 12 months, said she'd been surprised to make the final, so the gold medal was a bonus.

Lee Wan Wah and Choong Tan Fook beat Chew Choon Eng and Chang Kim Wai 15-6, 15-6 in an all-Malaysian men's doubles final and Jo Novita and Lita Nurlita beat Eny Erlangga and Lilyana Natsir 15- 13, 11-15, 15-7 in an all-Indonesian women's doubles decider.

Thailand secured a gold medal when Sudket Prapakamol and Saralee Thoungthongkam beat Indonesia's Anggun Nugroho and Eny Widyowati 15-12, 15-7 in the mixed doubles.

In the men's singles, Sony withstood comebacks by Wong Choong Hann in both games, but won five consecutive points to wrap up the first and then went on a double-digit winning roll on serve after the Malaysian had rallied to level at 5-5 in the second.

The 2002 Asian Championships titlist moved to match point when Wong missed a service return and then finished the one-hour, seven-minute final when the Malaysian's high clear dropped well over the baseline.

The 19-year-old Sony said it was the first time he'd been Indonesia's No. 1 in a competition abroad and he'd gained a lot of experience with the extra responsibility.

Sony went into the SEA Games with three consecutive losses to Wong, including the quarterfinals at the world championships in July - when Wong reached the final - and the final of the Taiwan Open last month.

But he said his win over Wong in the opening singles match of the Indonesian men's team semifinal victory over Malaysia had given him confidence ahead of the individual events.

"I had nothing to worry about, nothing to lose," he said. "I was relaxed and knew I could improve" in the final. "It's a happy way to finish off the year."

Indonesia beat Thailand 3-1 in the men's team final on Monday.

Sony reached the singles final with a 15-8, 15-1 win over defending champion Roslin Hashim of Malaysia. Wong advanced on a 15-3, 7-5, 15-9 win over Singapore's Ronald Susilo.

The Malaysians consequently took silver and bronze, with Susilo claiming a bronze for Singapore.

The minor medals in the women's singles went to Ponsana from Thailand and Singapore pair Li Li and Jian Yan Mei.

Singapore won the women's team title for the first time at the SEA Games for its sole gold of the tournament.