West Java leads tally, as snafus hit PON

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West Java surged to the top of the medal tally on Thursday, as the National Games faced a match delay and two challenges from aggrieved soccer teams.

Although West Java’s domination in the pool was halted, the team salvaged a gold medal in the men’s 50 meters on Thursday, when Triadi Fauzi and Glenn Victor made a one-two finish with Guntur Pratama Putra of Jakarta trailing in third.

West Java also snagged 2 of the 4 gold medals on offer for rapid chess on Thursday: Irene Kharisma Sukandar’s first-place finish in the women’s individual event and the men’s team victory. The other gold medals were won by East Java and East Kalimantan.

The prospects for gold for West Java also look good in badminton, after the team’s women players won semifinal matches against East Java. They will face Central Java in the final.

At the end of Thursday, West Java racked up a total of 29 gold medals since the start of the Games to overtake Jakarta at the top of the provisional standings. East Java was in second place with 27 gold medals

The capital city’s team, which has dominated track and field at this year’s Games, was third with 25 gold medals.

Jakarta and East Java continued their domination in the diving arena, taking one gold medal each on Thursday.

Sari Ambarwati won the gold for Jakarta in the women’s springboard, while East Java’s M. Nasrullah won the men’s platform.

Aceh won its first gold at the Games after its men’s team triumphed in tarung derajat, the traditional West Java martial art.

“We are satisfied with our athletes’ performance, although we have only won one gold. We came to Riau with the goal of only wining one gold, one silver and one bronze,” Aceh team official Nuzuli said as quoted by Antara news service.

In weightlifting, Olympic silver medalist Triyatno, as expected, was unchallenged in the men’s 69-kilogram category, breaking a PON record as he brought home a gold medal for East Kalimantan.

Other victorious lifters were Rahman Hidayat of Lampung, Sandow Wildemar of East Java and Sinta Darmariani of Bali.

Meanwhile, the final match in the men’s 50-meter rifle prone was delayed after arena plunged into darkness due to a lack of floodlights.

“It’s impossible to continue the match. It’s dark,” organizing committee staff member Silvia Gani said.

In soccer, East Java and Riau launched protests after they failed to advance, blaming organizers.

East Java protested West Java’s participation, saying that the team should have been deemed ineligible, which would have meant that East Java would have advanced.

Meanwhile, Riau accused officials of not complying with FIFA rules.

While Riau and East Kalimantan ended their group matches with equal points, Riau claimed it should have qualified based on a head-to-head match between the teams.

However, officials made their decision using the goal margin, allowing East Kalimantan to advance.

Nurni Sulaiman contributed reporting