Debutant Cindy outperforms favorite to win gold for E. Java

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Games debutant Cindy Martono shocked national athlete Lindswell by winning the all-round event in wushu at the Rumbai Sports Hall in Pekanbaru on Thursday.

Cindy of East Java collected a total of 19.11 points, compared to North Sumatra’s Lindswell’s 18.92 to take gold. Kamilia Lituhayu took the bronze for Yogyakarta with her 18.54 points.

Lindswell showed her class among the six contenders when she scored 9.59 points in taijiquan, or 0.02 over Cindy and 0.48 over Kamilia.

But in the taijijian, Lindswell failed to maintain her high standard with in the last two acts of the movement. She could only score 9.33 and found herself in the bronze medal position.

At 18, Cindy is the youngest athlete in East Java team and had not expected to outperform pre-
tournament favorite Lindswell.

“That really surprised me when I learned from the judges that I achieved the highest points. I’m really too emotional to express my happiness that I beat SEA Games and Asian Games athlete,” she told The Jakarta Post.

 “I would have been content with silver. But I tried hard and it appeared that God rewarded me. I’m really glad about that,” she said.

The ongoing National Games is the first high-level tournament she has attended since she joined the training camp in 2009. Her last appearance was at the 2010 national championship where she won gold in the bare fist and bronze in the sword category.

“At the PON qualifying competition in Makassar last year, I could only bring home bronze in the all-round event. That’s why I was really surprised by the gold,” she said.

Despite her outsider status, Cindy’s surprise victory became apparent when she to executed five difficult acts well.

Overwhelmed a tearful Lindswell, who won bronze in Vietnam two months ago, could not hide her disappointment. She tried to view the defeat rationally.

“Anything can happen. We may not get everything we expect, anytime. Furthermore, wushu is not a measured sport. Even in the measured sports, the results may come against our prediction,” she said.

She applauded Cindy’s prowess. “I did fail in the last two challenges in the taijijian. I should have landed with one foot. I wobbled and was forced to use two feet, which resulted in deduction of my points twice,” she said.

“If I had landed perfectly with one foot I might have scored 9.7. That’s the game, anything can happen,” she said.

The gold in the men’s category went to Marten M Tangdilallo of East Kalimantan with 19.28 points. Host Fredy Wijaya scored 19.15 points for silver and Julius Yoga Kurniawan of Yogyakarta made 19.11 for the bronze.

The results ran according to the pre-tournament script. Marten had been expected to win after he put in an impressive performance in the preceding tournament.

“My toughest opponent is myself. I needed luck too because good athletes do not automatically win,” he said.

Wushu competition will run until Sept. 15. East Java led the medal standings with two out of seven gold medals up for grabs.