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)