A

rchery stronghold East Java showed its prowess on Saturday in the compound events, held for the first time in a National Games.

The team won the two gold medals on offer, courtesy of Kuswantoro and Dellie Threesyadinda, known as Dinda, who scored 141 and 138, in the men’s and women’s match respectively.

Kuswantoro beat East Kalimantan’s Syamsudin by two points, with Yoke Rizaldi Akbar finishing in third place.

“Actually, my score was lower than in previous matches,” Kuswantoro said. His best score was the 146 points he made in the quarterfinals and the semifinals.

The compound competition is not new to Kuswantoro having played for Indonesia in the SEA (Southeast Asian) Games.

The 28-year-old archer earned silver in the SEA Games in 2007 in Thailand and in 2009 in Laos, while he failed to bring home a medal in the 2011 SEA Games in Jakarta.

“Hopefully, I’ll get gold in the 2013 SEA Games [in Myanmar],” said the father of a 4-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy.

Meanwhile, Dinda won her gold after a tight final match against Esti Setyaningsih of Central Java. Esti lost by only one point.

Dinda, who prepared for the Games for four years in Surabaya archery training camp, said she was not too satisfied with the final score.

“The result was not as high as I had expected. My best score so far has been the 146 I made in Laos during a try-out for the Asian Grand Prix in 2011,” the 22-year-old said.

“The pressure was high because we had to meet our medal target as demanded by the officials. We had to earn gold medals so that it would be easier for other archers to play in the next matches.”

East Java has set a target of six out of 12 gold medals on offer in the archery events that will run until Wednesday.

Dinda’s desire to be an archer is apparently in the blood given her father and mother were former national archers.

Her father and trainer Denny Trisyanto said Dinda had been practicing in archery since she was six years old.

Her mother Lilies Handayani and two other archers Nurfitriyana Saiman and Kusuma Wardhani were Indonesian heroines after seizing silver in the Seoul Olympics in 1988, which turned out to be the country’s first Olympic medals in 36 years of participation.

“She asked for permission to practice archery after seeing her mother practice. So I made her a bow out of bamboo,” said Denny, who is also secretary-general of the Indonesian Archery Association’s (PERPANI) East Java chapter.

Denny said the then 15-year-old Dinda won 15 golds, two silvers and one bronze in 18 national-level championships.

Adding to the list of Dinda’s achievements, the proud father said she won a silver in a world tournament in Dover, England, in 2008.

Dinda, a law student at Airlangga University, said she was aiming for success at the 2013 SEA Games in Myanmar.

“But I have to figure out how to balance my training and my studies,” said the final-year university student.

— JP/Mustaqim Adamrah