Eying gold: Indonesian archer I Gusti Nyoman Puruhita takes aim during the 70-meter compound bow competition at the 25th SEA Games in Vientiane, Laos, on Tuesday. Puruhita won gold. Jp/Arief Suhardiman
While Thailand looks safe atop the medal standings, Indonesia is locked in a close battle for a lower position at the Southeast Asian Games on Tuesday.
With three days to go until the Games close, Indonesia and Malaysia are running neck and neck with 26 gold medals each, although the latter leads the former in fourth place with more silver, 29 against 27.
Indonesia collected five gold medals on Tuesday, thanks to a double in archery range and one each from wrestling, fin swimming and wushu.
Malaysia added four, two of them produced from track-and-field, where Indonesia only managed four silver and bronze medals.
Malaysia also enjoyed gold in archery and wushu.
Breathing down Indonesia’s neck is the Philippines, which picked up five gold medals on the day and
now stands only three shy of Indonesia’s count.
Vietnam won the most gold on the day with 13, helped by its athletes’ blistering performances in fin swimming and shooting, producing four each.
However, the haul was still not enough to rock Thailand's position at the top. The leader and reigning champion bagged nine gold medals, four of them from muay thai.
Thailand has amassed a total of 51 gold medals, followed by Vietnam with 45 and Singapore with 31.
Indonesia might rue the missed chances of striking gold in track-and-field.
Yahuza failed to defend the marathon title he won two years ago, losing to eventual winner Eduardo Buenavista of the Philippines.
The other silver medalists were Darwati (women’s 20-kilometer walk), Indra Abdul Kadir (men’s 20-kilometer walk) and Rose Herlinda Ingriana (women’s hammer throw).
From the archery range, Novia Nuraini made a golden return by winning the women’s 70-meter individual recurve, while I Gusti Nyoman Paruhito notched up the second gold in the men’s individual compound bow.
Priscillia Gunawan broke the SEA Games record in the 800-meter fin swim to earn gold in a time of seven minutes and 23 seconds, blasting the old record of 7:29.45 out of the water.
In wushu, Ardiansyah was too strong for Thai opponent Kongrichai Kritsada in the 50-kilogram men’s event, while Susyana Tjhan was the gold medalist in the women’s changquan.
On Tuesday at the LAO ITECC Hall, she scored a total of 19.37 to beat Sandi Oo and That That Naing, both of Myanmar, to second and third place. They scored 19.17 and 19.04 points respectively.
Despite two gold medals from her four SEA Games going to the final, Susyana said she had not expected to win gold this time around.
“I didn’t imagine getting a gold this year because two years ago the competition was tough,” said Susyana, who only got bronze back then.
She has been under the supervision of Chinese coach Chen Wen Fu in preparing for the event.
“I just focused on what I regularly did during practice, no pressure.”
The Indonesia wushu squad is hoping for more gold from 18-year-old Lindswell in the women’s taichiquan, Heriyanto in the men’s nanquan event and Aldi Lukman in the men’s gunshu.
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