No medals yet for Indonesia at Asian Youth Games

Agnes Winarti ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Thu, 07/02/2009 9:51 PM  |  Sports

Having made the finals of several track and field events on the fourth day of the Asian Youth Games in Singapore on Thursday, Indonesia squandered all chances of winning medals.

Boys’ long jumper Noval Kurniawan recorded a 6.28-meter leap to finish seventh in the 15-strong field. China’s Huang Haibing seized the gold medal, with Pang Ying Kit from Hong Kong and Alshehhi K. from the United Arab Emirates taking silver and bronze respectively.
 
In the girls’ 400-meter sprint, Indonesia’s Ikadiatul clocked 1:00.53, the slowest in the pack of eight runners. Benjamas Yuadthong (57.38) from Thailand won the gold, trailed by Kazakhstan’s Elina Mikhina (57.73) and Hsu Yu-Wen (58.01) from Taiwan.
 
Indonesia will rest its hope of winning track and field medals with Arif Rahman in the boys’ 800 meters, Sapwa Aurahman in the boys’ high jump, and the quartet of Ikadaitul, Nena Achdiyah, Nurul Imaniar and Yesika in the girls’ 4x200-meter relay on Friday.

“Arif is the only athlete with a realistic chance of winning a medal. The others will face much tougher contenders,” coach Subagyo told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

He hailed Ikadiatul and Noval for their performances, despite their failure to win medals. Subagyo said he had expected his protégés to reach the finals.

In swimming, Indonesia’s Ressa Kania Dewi finished last in the girls’ 400-meter freestyle final. In shooting, Vincent Edison Koeswanto, the country’s sole hope in the boys’ air rifle event, finished 14th out of 46.

Indonesia stands a chance of winning medals in beach volleyball, after girls’ pair Dhita Yuliana and Dhanis Evlina beat Singapore’s Tan Yi Ting and Peng Yet Ting Dorita 2-0 on Thursday to book a quarterfinal against Kyrgyzstan on Friday.

On Wednesday, boys’ pair I Gede Eka Agustiawan and Ade Chandra Rachmawan shocked favorites China (Hu Lianwei/Ru Tianxiang) 2-0 and Kazakhstan (Vladsilav Pustynnikov/Sergey Bogatu) 2-0 in their group D matches to face either India or Bahrain in the quarterfinals on Saturday.

When asked about Indonesia’s medal hopes in beach volleyball, coach Slamet Mulyanto told the Post on Thursday: “Let’s keep praying for them. I have to admit, Thailand and Yemen are the teams that stand between us and the medal.”

Indonesia sent 45 young athletes to compete in eight of the 10 medal events at the inaugural Asian Youth Games, which will wind up on Sunday.

As of Wednesday, China led the medal hunt with six golds, one silver and one bronze. South Korea trailed a distant second with one gold, three silvers and four bronzes, followed by Japan with one gold and three silvers.

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