Medals become elusive for minnows

Musthofid ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Samarinda, East Kalimantan   |  Tue, 07/15/2008 10:36 AM  |  Sports

The Gorontalo administration might need to up its ante, if its athletes are to "break the duck" in the National Games (PON), where even the least-glittery medals have become elusive.

By the 10th day of the games, in which 33 provinces are competing, Gorontalo and West Sulawesi, two of Indonesia's newest provinces, had yet to collect a medal.

Gorontalo, part of North Sulawesi before detaching in 2002, came with 35 athletes competing in 11 of 43 sports while West Sulawesi is competing in nine sports and deploying 34 athletes, the smallest contingent in a pool of 8,000 competitors.

The ongoing games are the first national competition for West Sulawesi, established in 2004. Its sports office opened in 2006. The contingent claims it has been hampered by limited time.

"As a new province, we had limited time to prepare our athletes. Some athletes could not take part in the trials because they were held at the same time as local competitions," Achmad Mustamin, secretary of the West Sulawesi contingent, told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Achmad said some athletes, believed to be their best hopes for a medal, were still playing in South Sulawesi.

"We would have counted on them for the medals. But I have no complaint because they have been training with South Sulawesi," he said.

Although taking part for the first time, the team is not without hope for a medal, Achmad added.

He said they had expected a medal in sepak takraw, but had lost. He attributed the failure, in part, to exhaustion the players suffered participating in the opening ceremony.

"The committee compelled us to deploy all athletes in the opening ceremony, including those who had been training in Bontang," he said. Bontang, one of six PON venues, is about a four-hour drive from Samarinda.

"They had to head back to Bontang after the ceremony, which made them tired," he said.

In track and field -- where East Java, East Kalimantan, West Java, Central Java and Jakarta took home most of the golds -- West Sulawesi could not manage an upset performance. Krisna Violata came in last in the women's 800-meter heat and failed to qualify for the finals.

The promise of bonuses for successful athletes seemed to have little impact on Gorontalo, which brought home only two bronze medals in its 2004 debut as an independent province.

On Monday, Febriyanto Hanta and Supriyanto Akili came no closer to being first-time medal winners for the contingent, finishing fourth in the preliminary round and failing to qualify for the men's doubles finals at the Sempaja Pencak Silat hall.

"We were expecting a bronze in traditional martial arts pencak silat. It looks like we'll have to wait four more years to get one," said trainer Hadijah Jafar. Febriyanto and Supriyono were the only players from Gorontalo to compete in the sport.

Contingent chief Syafrudin Amir said the local administration had promised to give any medal winner a furnished 54-square-meter house and cash.

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