Catherine wins 2 golds on PON return
JAKARTA (JP): West Java's best swimming hope, Catherine Surya, restored her tainted pride with a glorious return to the National Games here yesterday.
Catherine, one of five sinners found guilty of taking banned substances at the previous Games three years ago, splashed to a double gold in the 200-meters butterfly and 50m freestyle.
As if to confirm her marvelous comeback, the West Javanese swimmer set a new national 200m butterfly record in two minutes and 16.14 seconds, smashing West Sumatran swimmer Olga Halim's two-year-old mark of 2:18.56.
West Java made it a one-two finish as Susanti Wangsawiguna took the silver in 2:21.46, well ahead of Olga who clocked only 2:26.30.
"I'm proud to dedicate my two golds to West Java. My performances today proved that hard work is worth doing," Catherine said.
At 13 years old, Catherine became the world's youngest swimmer ever to serve a two-year ban for using Nandrolone, one of thousands of illegal performance enhancing substances, in the 1993 PON. The National Sports Council stripped her of her eight gold medals and five national records.
Catherine, who has trained in Australia, clocked an under-par time of 27.80 in the 50m freestyle, but it was enough to beat her strongest rivals Elsa Manora Nasution from Jambi, who was timed at 27.84, and Meitri Widya Pangestika from Central Java, who finished in 28.52.
Elsa made amends for her loss by retaining her 400m individual medley crown with a time of 5:11.94, well outside her national record of 4:59.92. Catherine had to settle for the bronze after clocking 5:10.78, behind East Javanese swimmer Rita Mariani.
Elsa, who made a late start, cried on her coach-father's shoulder after completing the race.
"She was upset by her poor start. It seemed like she was daydreaming," said Jambi's national coach Radja Nasution.
Surprise
Albert Sutanto sprang a surprise when he beat Indonesia's Olympian and Jakarta teammate Richard Sam Bera en route to the men's 200m freestyle gold in 1:55.30.
"The record was not really important. But beating Richard? That's more important for me," said Albert, who had never beaten Richard before.
"I'm just a second-stringer compared to Richard," a down-to- earth Albert added.
Richard, an American-based swimmer, was left trailing throughout the close race. He finished second in 1:57.12, followed by Armand Panji from Lampung who clocked 1:59.29.
National team newcomer Audi Oktavian gave Central Java its first swimming gold by winning the men's 100m breaststroke in a meet record-breaking time of 1:05.83. The old meet record was set by Jakartan Wirmandi Sugriat in 1:05.87 in 1989.
Wirmandi managed only the silver in 1:06.18, ahead of another Central Javanese swimmer Denny Kurniawan, who clocked 1:06.75. (yan)