Three athletes winning the men’s 400-meter hurdles in  the Papua National Sports Week (PON) XX managed to break the PON record while competing at the Mimika Sport Complex, Mimika Papua on Sunday.

West Java’s runner Halomoan Edwin Binsar Simanjuntak recorded a time of 51.33 seconds to bag the gold medal.

Meanwhile, M. Khairuddin Syahputra from North Sumatra pocketed the silver medal with a time of 51.75 seconds.

The bronze medal went to West Nusa Tenggara’s Andrian after finishing the race in 51.77 seconds.

Previously, Andrian held the PON record of the athletics event with a record time of 51.83 seconds he made in  West Java PON XIX.

Thus, Andrian managed to sharpen his record at the national sports event.

Although Simanjuntak managed to win the gold medal, the 20-year-old athlete failed to break his own national record of 50.81 seconds  he made in  the 2019 Southeast Asian Games held in the Philippines.

The race ran so tightly that  the three leading athletes did not leave any little distance among them from the beginning to the middle of the race.

However, towards the end of the run, Simanjuntak started to lead the race after jumping over the last hurdle.

Meanwhile, Andrian and Syahputra continued their tight race at 50 meters before the finish line.

Simanjuntak finally succeeded in securing the first podium, followed by Syahputra and Andrian.

The Papua PON XX which started in mid September 2021 will end on October 15, 2021.

As of October 10, 2021 at 12:00 Eastern Indonesia Standard Time, West Java contingent was still at the top of the medal standing, followed by East Java, Jakarta, Papua, and Central Java.

Source: Antara News