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Maria stuns Asia with long jump gold
Golden girl: Indonesiaâs Maria Natalia Londa competes in the womenâs long jump final at the 17th Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, on Monday
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span class="inline inline-center">Golden girl: Indonesia's Maria Natalia Londa competes in the women's long jump final at the 17th Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, on Monday. Maria cleared 6.55 meters to break the 6.27m record in the women's long jump, winning gold. AP/Lee Jin-man
Long jumper Maria Natalia Londa stole the show at Incheon Asiad Main Stadium on Monday by earning Indonesia gold, its first track and field victory in the Asian Games for 16 years.
The 24-year-old registered a 6.55-meter jump to beat Thi Thu Thao Bui of Vietnam with 6.44m and Jiang Yanfei of China with 6.34m.
The victory, while lifting Indonesia's position to 14th in the medal table with three gold, four silver and seven bronze medals, came more than a decade after Supriati Sutono won her 5,000m gold at the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok.
Indonesia could have added another gold on the 10th day of competition at Asia's quadrennial multi-sport event, but failed.
After winning the women's doubles through Greysia Polii and Nitya Krishinda Maheswari, and the men's doubles courtesy of Hendra Setiawan and Mohammad Ahsan, Indonesia's Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir came up short in the badminton mixed doubles final.
Tontowi and Liliyana were beaten 21-16, 21-14 by Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei of China.
The Indonesian pair raced into a six-point lead, but they could not maintain it and eventually wilted under the pressure.
'When leading 13-7, they should have continued to press their opponents. Their opponents would have been nervous. Unfortunately, Tontowi made two unnecessary mistakes when his smashes struck the net. His racket string also broke,' coach Richard Mainaky said.
The players admitted they had been affected by unforced errors that allowed their opponents to catch and overtake them.
China ended the badminton competition with five gold medals against Indonesia's two. Lin Dan defeated fellow Chinese Chen Long earlier in the day to win men's singles gold.
While the track and field gave a rare moment of triumph to Indonesia, in other sporting disciplines Indonesia's athletes failed to get close to the medals.
At the Hanam Misari Canoe Center, Indonesian athletes finished far behind their Asian contenders, with fifth position being the best performance in eight of the 12 finals they participated in.
In the women's cycling road race, in which Thailand and Vietnam took the top two positions, Indonesia's Fitriani and Yanthi Fuchianty were among the latter places.
A chance for bronze in the beach volleyball was missed as Koko Prasetyo Darkuncoro and Ade Candra Rachmawan were beaten 17-21, 11-21 by Hali Kejiang and Bao Jian. Gold went to Kazakhs Alexandr Dyachenko and Alexey Sidorenko, who defeated Chinese Chen Cheng and Li Jian in the finals.
Indonesia is still looking for a medal in sepaktakraw (kick volleyball).
Meanwhile, soft tennis, which is still in its preliminary phase, and BMX arena, which will begin on Wednesday, are believed to be hidden treasures for Indonesia.
China leads the medal table with 112 gold medals, while host South Korea is second on 44 and Japan is third on 35.
