Hangzhou (ANTARA) - Indonesia broke China's dominance to win gold in the men's 1,000-meter dragon boat race at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, on Friday.
Maizir Riyondra and his team finished the race with a record of 4 minutes and 31.135 seconds.
Indonesia was in fifth place after the first 250 meters of the race, but the team managed to power through and move up to second place behind team China, which had led for the first half of the race.
In the last 500 meters of the race, Indonesia slowly but surely narrowed the gap on the home team. The Indonesian rowers finished the race 0.047 seconds ahead of China.
Myanmar took the bronze with a time of 4 minutes and 32.959 seconds.
This was the only gold medal won by the Indonesian dragon boat team in the six events it contested at the Games. China dominated the competition with five golds.
"We tried not to be provoked at the beginning of the race because our competitor, China, is very strong. They tried to test us, but we remained calm," one of the Indonesian rowers, Anwar, said after the race.
Earlier on Wednesday (October 4), Indonesia secured a silver medal in the women's 200m dragon boat event, and a bronze in the men's 200m.
On Thursday (October 5), Indonesia took home two silver medals in the men's and women's 500m events.
The Indonesian dragon boat team logged a lackluster performance at the 2018 Asian Games, when they failed to bring back any gold medals.
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