Albert fifth in Asian Swimming C'ships

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian men's swimmer Albert Christiadi Sutanto finished fifth in his favorite discipline of the 200 meters butterfly at the Sixth Asian Swimming Championships in Pusan, South Korea, on Thursday.

Albert clocked two minutes 04.02 seconds, which is 0.06 seconds faster than his time in the World Cup Short Course meet in Berlin, but 03.23 seconds slower than his best time in the meet in Paris last month.

The gold medal went to Han Kyu-chul of South Korea with a time of 2:00.62, followed by Japanese Koba Shunsuke in 2:01.62 and Hwang Jun-il of South Korea with 2:02.95.

Teammate Elsa Manora Nasution finished seventh in the women's 100m backstroke, clocking a time of 1:08.27, slower than the time she produced in the meets in Berlin and Paris where she clocked 1:06.48 and 1:06.56 respectively.

Yoshiko Saito of Japan took the gold in the event by clocking 1:02.95, followed by Zhan Shu of China with 1:02.96 and Shim Min- jee of South Korea with 1:04.04.

The Indonesian Swimming Federation (PRSI) official in charge of athletes development, Patuan Simatupang, told The Jakarta Post that the results were good for the swimmers.

"Both Albert and Elsa have qualified for the Olympics. Today's results are a payoff of their long-term preparations. Their rankings for the Olympics will also improve," he said.

Chinese Quyang Kunpeng took the gold in the men's 100m backstroke after clocking 56.62, followed by Yosuke Ueda of Japan with 57.42 and Min Sung of South Korea with 58.

In the men's 200m freestyle, Mark Kwok of Hong Kong took the gold after finishing first in 1:52.48. Chinese Deng Qing Song trailed in second place with 1:53.23, followed by South Korean Woo Chol with 1:53.44.

Qin Caini of China clocked 2:02.38 to grab the gold in the women's 200m freestyle, followed by teammate Chen Yan with 2:02.52 and South Korean Roh Joo-hee with 2:03.40.

In the women's 200m butterfly, Tomoko Hagiwara won the gold by clocking 2:12.19. The silver medal went to Hsieh Shu Tzu of China Taipei with 2:13.43 and the bronze was earned by Ruan Yi of China with 2:13.80.

In Seattle, Washington, Aaron Peirsol, 16, posted the fifth- fastest time in history in winning the 200m backstroke at the US National Swimming Championships on Wednesday in 1min 57.03sec.

Peirsol joined 1996 Olympic champion Brad Bridgewater and 1998 world champion Lenny Krayzelburg in the hunt for Olympic glory in the 200m back in Sydney.

AFP reported that Peirsol, silver medalist in the event at the Pan American Games last summer, is now the third fastest man in the event ever, behind Spain's Martin Zubero and world record- holder Krayzelburg, who is skipping this meet to focus on the Olympic Trials in August.

Neil Walker, winner of seven medals at the world short course championships in Athens earlier this month, won the 100m freestyle and said his early season form wasn't a concern, despite the September start of the Sydney Games.

Ed Moses, who captured both the 100m and 200m breaststroke short course world records at the US collegiate championships last weekend, won the 200m breaststroke.