No more gold medals were bagged by the Indonesian karate squad on the last day of competition for martial arts at the 25th SEA Games in Laos on Saturday.
Gold-medal hopeful Donny Darmawan was only able to add another bronze after losing to Laotian Xaysavath in the semifinal at the Chao Anouvong Gymnasium in Vientiane.
Overall, the 17-member karate squad picked up three gold, three silver and six bronze medals. The team failed to increase their gold haul through favorites Donny and Martinel Prihastuti, who had to settle for silver after unexpectedly losing 7-1 to Vietnam's Vu Thi Nguyen An.
"We feel the referee's judgment calls were quite poor, especially during Donny's match against a fighter from the host country," karate team manager Djafar Djantang said Saturday.
Donny defeated tough Vietnamese contestant Nguyen Hoap Hiep to advance to the semifinals, where he subsequently lost to Laotian Xaysavath, who later went on to win gold in the men's 60-kilogram division.
"There were points awarded to the Laotian fighter, although he did not score them. I believe if the referee had scored the bout fairly, Donny would have advanced *to the final*," Djafar said.
Besides Donny's bronze and Martinel's silver, Saturday's finals saw Indonesia scoop up two more bronze medals in the men's and women's kumite teams.
Meanwhile, the tae kwon do squad also ended their competition Saturday, with Fransiska Valentina adding a solitary silver medal to the team's takings. The tae kwon do squad collected a total of one gold, three silver and six bronze medals.
The only gold from tae kwon do came unexpectedly from Mery Wandra, while favorites Rizal Samsir and Yulius Fernando were relegated to picking up bronze. Another gold hopeful, Basuki Nugroho, fared worse, being eliminated in the preliminary round.
"We are disappointed as we have missed our target of winning three gold medals. We did not expect such strong competition from the Filipino and Thai tae kwon do teams," Joseph Hungan, the tae kwon do team manager, said Saturday.
He also criticized what he felt was the unfair scoring by the referee during Basuki's preliminary match against a Filipino fighter, claiming this cost Basuki an opportunity to win gold.
