West Java dominates tae kwon do National C'ships

West Java dominates tae kwon do National C'ships

JAKARTA (JP): West Java brought home the Vice President trophy
after dominating the three-day first LG Cup national tae kwon do
championships by bagging nine gold medals, three silver and three
bronze.

Central Java trailed behind in second place with only two
gold, five silver and two bronze medals while Lampung came third
with two golds, one silver and one bronze.

West Java earned two gold medals in the last day of the
championships at the Senayan Indoor Stadium on Tuesday. The
medals came from women's middleweight athlete Emerald Margareth,
who defeated Amalia Kurnia of Central Java 4-2, and Voppy
Trisnawati, who beat Robeca Depon Doiye of Irian Jaya with an
RSC.

Robeca bowed out after Voppy's straight kick hit her face in
the second round.

Central Java added one more gold after men's bantamweight
fighter Deri Dermansyah, the 1999 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games
bronze medalist, fought hard against Eko Agus of East Kalimantan
to win 4-3.

In the women's bantamweight division, Farah Faradea of Lampung
surprisingly overcame Yudika Sitanggang of Central Java 9-7.
Farah was named as the best female tae kwon doin in the
championships, which also served as the qualification for the
15th National Games (PON) in Surabaya next year.

In the men's middleweight class, Joko Arianto of East Java had
no trouble eliminating Hengky Prasetyo of Central Java 5-2.

Men's lightweight tae kwon doin Fadli Potu of West Java was
named as the best male athlete.

West Java team manager, Hartono, said he had prepared his
athletes for nearly two months and three weeks in a centralized
training center in Bandung.

"We only targeted to win six golds here but luckily our
athletes managed to do better than expected. Hopefully in next
year's PON, we can improve our performance," he said.

On the other hand, national team coach Oh Il-nam of South
Korea expressed dissatisfaction with the championships' results.

"Most winners here are old hands. It shows that each province
only focuses their attention on qualifying as many as possible of
their athlethes for PON and paid less attention to athletes'
development," he said.

Oh said it would be better if the Indonesian Taekwondo
Association (TI) would separate the national championships from
the PON qualifying round.

The former world champion conveyed an idea of staging a junior
national championships which would be divided into two divisions:
an elementary school division and an under-17 division.

"By having those championships, I believe Indonesia wouldn't
have any problems searching for young talent," he said.

Oh said he had found an alternate tae kwon doin in the women's
flyweight division to replace Juana Wangsa Putri, who has
qualified for the 2000 Olympics, if the latter is injured during
preparation. However, he declined to mention the athlete's name,
saying only that she would be sent to South Korea, hopefully,
next week. (yan)