WINNERS AGAIN:

President Soeharto congratulates Central Java's long-distance team leader Suryono (left) after the province won the Tri Lomba Juang triathlon championship. The awards were presented yesterday at a ceremony at the Jakarta Convention Center.

Central Java's 50-man team won the overall title after earning the highest scores in the race's 17-kilometer cross-country event and 45-kilometer walking event, its second straight victory after its 1990 triumph.

East Java denied the defending champion a clean sweep by winning the race's 8-kilometer run to finish second. Third place was taken by West Java. The three winning provinces received cash prizes of Rp 175 million, Rp 150 million and Rp 125 million respectively.

Held for the first time in 1980, the Tri Lomba Juang team competition consists of a 17-kilometer cross-country race, an eight-kilometer run and a 45-kilometer walk. The distances are based on the date, month and year (Aug. 17, 1945) when Indonesia's founding fathers, the late president Sukarno and vice president Mohammad Hatta, proclaimed the nation's independence.