The Indonesian wushu team won six
gold medals on Friday at the ASEAN University Games (AUG) in Palembang, South
Sumatra, but the host nation played second fiddle elsewhere in the games,
trailing Thailand in the medal standings.
Friday’s six-gold medal haul made
it eight in the competition for Indonesia, which emerged overall champion in
wushu.
Hendri Tarigan, Sony Rezaldi,
Junita Malauw, Fenny Pebriana Umarella, Juwita Niza Wasni and Eric Losardi
joined the gold-medalist list, which already included Lindswell Kwok and Ahmad
Khulaifi.
The team also won four silver
medals.
“The coach asked me to bury my
fear and fight normally,” said Hendri, who won the men’s 60-kilogram sanda
(sparring) category.
Malaysia took three gold, five silver
and two bronze medals, followed by Laos (2-2-4).
In karate, Indonesia had to be
content with only one gold via Alin Sukma in the men’s 75-kg kumite (grappling
hands) category.
He beat Songvut Muntaen of
Thailand by a point, while Noor Azizan Nor Ali finished third.
“I had difficulty with the
opponent’s high posture and speed. My strategy was to evade and counter
attack,” he said.
Coach Mursalim Badoo said the
athletes’ performance had surpassed the previous gold tally in Laos.
“We’re deploying second-layer
athletes to give them opportunities in international events,” he said.
Indonesia trails Thailand in the
overall medal tally with its 14 gold medals against Thailand’s 16.
“From this event, we can see that
they (wushu athletes) are developing and ready for higher goals.” Sandri Liong,
Indonesia Wushu Coach also expresses the same thing. He said that the event is
out of his expectation. He did not put any specific target for 17th AUG. “We do
not have specific target, the most important is that we do our best here,” he
concluded
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