Former Indonesian sprinter Yudi Purnomo dies at 58
>> February 16, 2019
Indonesia's former top sprinter Yudi Purnomo died on Friday (15 February 2019) after a 4-year battle with cancer (lymphoma).
Born in 1961, Purnomo competed in the 1984 Olympics and had won numerous medals in Asian-level competitions.
During the 1984 Olympics at Los Angeles, he advanced into the quarterfinals of the 100m after finishing in second during the second heat of round one in a time of 10.40s. In this race, he was behind the defending champion Allan Wells of Great Britain who recorded 10.32.
Later in the afternoon heat four of the quarterfinals, he finished in 3rd position behind Jamaica's Raymond Stewart (10.30) and Allan Wells (10.33) but was well ahead of Spain's Jose Javier Arques (10.52) to enter the semifinal round comfortably.
In semifinals, he clocked a time of 10.51s (+0.7) to finish in the eighth position of his first heat race and was eliminated; only top four of each semifinal heat would be qualified into the finals.
The race was won by Jamaica's Raymond Stewart (10.26). Ironically, heat 2 race was 'against headwinds' and apparently not quicker as the last qualifier Tony Sharpe of Canada at 4th place had a time of 10.52 (-1.5), which was one hundred of a second slower than Purnomo's. Carl Lewis won the heat 2 race in 10.14 who then took the victory in the finals in 9.99s.
During the 200m, he ended in 5th position during the quarterfinals in a new national record of 20.93s (-0.5) behind the likes of Carl Lewis (20.48), Stefano Tilli and Atlee Mahorn. He came third (21.01) earlier during the heat 9 of round one.
His first well-known international medals for Indonesia came from the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in 1983 at Singapore when he won 3 silver medals, the 100m (10.62) and 200m (21.82) individuals. He then teamed up in the 4x100m to take another silver medal (40.58).
Four months later, he clinched the ATF (Asian Track & Field)'s bronze medal in the 100m (10.60) and went on to win a silver medal in the 200m (21.64).
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| Photo collection of the late Yudi Purnomo (from his facebook) |
Previously in the year when the ATF was held in his home ground Jakarta, he won two silver medals after finishing in second at 100m (10.33), behind China's Zheng Chen (10.28) and the 200m (21.19), behind South Korea's Chang Jae-Keun (20.57).
In the 1987 SEA Games in Jakarta, he clinched 2 silver medals from the 200m and 4x100m.
He retained his SEA Games silver medal at 200m in the 1989 edition in Kuala Lumpur after coming in second (21.32) behind teammate and the newly crowned 100m champion (10.40) Mardi Lestari who clocked 21-flat.
He has personal bests of 10.33s in the 100m that he set during the ATF in 1985 and 20.93s at 200m from the 1984 Olympics. His actual name is Purnomo bin Muhmmad Yudhi Wijaya.
Condolences to his family.
by Jad Adrian, ATFS statistician
