Young stars break records at track and field meet

JAKARTA (JP): One of Indonesia's young track stars, Irine Truitje Joseph from Maluku, could not hide her joy at breaking the national record in the women's 200-meter dash during the first day of the National Track and Field Invitational at Senayan Madya Stadium on Friday.

The 18-year-old Irine clocked a record 23.92 seconds, besting the old record of 24.24, which was set by Henny Maspaitella at the 11th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in 1981. Earlier on Friday, Irine clocked 24.17 seconds in the preliminary rounds.

"I didn't expect to break the national record. I was sure that I could run it in 23 or 24 seconds. In the morning, I recorded 24.17 seconds and Piet (Irine's coach Pieter Noya) encouraged me to achieve a better time in the final," Irine said.

"In this meet, I'm testing my ability to run the 400-meters. I hope I can break the record. Please pray for me. Based on my performance today, I'm optimistic that I will represent Indonesia at the 20th SEA Games," she cheerfully said.

The SEA Games will be held in Brunei Darussalam from Aug. 7 to Aug. 15.

Irine, who first took up track under her former elementary school teacher, Intje Toisutta, is Indonesia's brightest young track star.

She was part of the victorious women's 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams at the 1993 Arafura Youth Games.

At the 1995 Asian Schools championship in Thailand, she finished second in both the 200m and 400m dash. In the 1996 Asian Schools championship held in Jakarta, Irine broke the junior national record in winning the 100m dash and finished second in the 200m dash.

In the 1996 Philippine Junior Open, she bagged golds in her two favorite disciplines, the 100m and 200m dash.

Today's competition also saw records set in the women's hammer throw and the women's and men's pole vault.

In the women's hammer, Central Java's Kusmiati, 18, broke the national record of 32.52m with a heave of 38.71m. The old record was set by Yurita Ariani in Purwokerto, Central Java, in November last year. Yurita finished second in today's event with a throw of 33.85m.

In the women's pole vault, 17-year-old Alia Basalamah broke her own record of 3.05m, with a vault of 3.15m. Her old mark was set in Purwokerto in November last year.

Men's pole vaulter Nunung Jayadi from Jakarta also improved his own national record from 4.90m to 4.95m. His old record was set in Jakarta in June 1997.

Long distance runner Supriati Sutono took first in the women's 5,000m with a time of 16:49.00, one minute slower than her winning time of 15:54.45 at the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok.

The secretary-general of the Indonesian Amateur Athletic Association, Barmawi Chaidir, said the association would conduct doping tests on all athletes who set records during the competition. (ivy)