The Indonesian karate squad has promised to fight it out to win gold
medals in the South East Asian Games in Vientiane on Saturday after seeing two
golds slip through their fingers on Friday.
“Hopefully tommorow gold medals will come from Donny [Darmawan] and Martinel [Prihastuti] as well as our women’s and men’s kumite teams,” national team manager Djafar Djantang said at the Chao Anovoung Gym, better known as the Budo Center, in the Laos capital city.
On Friday veteran fighter Umar Syarif saved Indonesia’s blushes with a gold medal, while teammates Hendro Salim and Jintar Simanjuntak settled for a silver each.
Malaysian Mohd Hatta downed Hendro 10-2, while Jintar lost to Vietnam’s Nguyen Ngoc Thanh 11-15.
“Too bad Jintan was outsmarted. His front side was too open,” coach Madju Dharyanto Hutapea said. Jintar was leading 7-4 when Nguyen fought back with two clean kicks to dictate the rest of the game.
Umar, bidding farewell to the SEA Games after six appearances, clawed his way back to beat Vietnam’s Pham Quang Duy 7-4 in their bout.
“I wish to be given one last shot at the Asian Games [in Guangzhou] next year,” said 34-year-old Umar, who bagged golds in the 2003 and 2005 SEA Games.
In taekwondo, Mery Wandra won the only gold medal for Indonesia, with silvers coming from Nurul Fadilah and Rahadewineta and a bronze fromYulius Fernando.
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