While many Indonesian teams have failed to hit their medal targets at the 27th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, the rowing team surpassed theirs.

The team showed its true mettle after grabbing two more gold medals on Tuesday in addition to the three earned a day before at Ngalike Dam, Naypyitaw, Myanmar.

The gold medals were collected by Arief/Thomas Hallatu who proved the fastest in the men's lightweight pair without coxswain and crossed the finish marker in 7:92.00. They were 1.61 seconds faster than the Philippines' Roque Jr Abala/Alvin Amposta followed by Vietnam's duo Thanh Binh Duong/Dinh Huy Nguyen 2:17 minutes later.

'We were almost overtaken on the last 1000-meter lap but we were able to hold on,' said Arief.

He added that it was the toughest event he had ever competed in, but 'we fought it out for Indonesia'.

The second gold medal was presented to a group of nine Indonesian rowers comprising Jamaludin, Iswandi, Agus Budi Aji, Anang Mulyana, Edwin Ginanjarrudiana, Mochamad Alidartalakiki, M. Yakin, Ihram, and Jarudin in the lightweight men's eight.

They grabbed the gold with a time of 5:59.88 followed by Thailand and Vietnam.

The rowing team had eyed three gold medals but instead collected five out of the nine golds up for grabs.

'Our lads gave their best and surpassed our target,' chairman of the Indonesian Rowing Association (PODSI) Ahmad Sutjipto said.

In the women's lightweight single sculls Maryam Makdalena Daimoi was only able to seize silver after finishing 1.53 seconds behind Singapore's Saiyidah Aisyah Mohamed Rafa'ee who clocked 8:08.94. The Bronze was taken by host Shwe Zin Latt with 8:14.85

In the lightweight women's fours Ratna, Yayah Rokayah, Syifa Lisdiana and Yuniarty took bronze after finishing 16.55 seconds behind Myanmar with 7:07.45 and Vietnam with 7:09.53.

Coach Boudewijn Van Opstal said that he was happy with his team's achievement.

'I had only set a target of one gold medal from the men's lightweight pair without coxswain, but they were able to seized gold from prestigious event of lightweight men's eight even though during training they did not look medal worthy.

'This is all thanks to our hard training for two years,' he said.

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