Felix swims a personal best at Paris meet

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian swimmers sharpen their personal best times in two World Cup Short Course meets in Berlin and Paris as a warm up prior to the Asian Swimming Championships in Pusan, South Korea, and the Olympic Games in Sydney.

The Indonesian Swimming Association (PRSI), official in charge of athletes development, Patuan P. Simatupang said in a release on Monday that Felix Christiadi Sutanto managed to finish second in the 50m backstroke in final of the Paris meet on Sunday, clocking 25.60 seconds.

"Felix improved his personal best of 26.28 seconds, recorded in the same event in Berlin on Feb. 6, where he finished in the top nine," he said.

Felix was only 0.35 seconds away from Croatian swimmer Tomislav Karlo who won Sunday's event with a record of 25.26 sec. Tom Eilert Karlsen of Norway was third with 25.63 sec.

"It was Felix's top achievement in the world event. He also excelled over other Indonesian swimmers," Patuan said.

Patuan listed other swimmers' achievements as follows: Richard Sam Bera (100m freestyle; 50.30 sec in Berlin, 50.66 in Paris), Albert C. Sutanto (200m butterfly; 2:04.08 in Berlin, 2:00.79 in Paris and 50m butterfly; 25.61 in Berlin, 25:30 in Paris), M. Akbar Nasution (200m individual medley; 2:13.11 in Berlin, 2:12.61 in Paris), Wisnu Wardhana (50m freestyle; 26.14 in Berlin and 24.04 in Paris).

In the women's side: Elsa Manora Nasution (100m butterfly; 1:06.48 in Berlin and 1:06.56 in Paris and 50m freestyle; 27.91 in Berlin and 27.53 in Paris) and Siripiya Sutanto (200m freestyle: 2:10.19 in Berlin and 2:12.19 in Paris).

"National swimmers have sharpened their best times in FINA's swimming World Cup events in Hong Kong, Berlin and Paris before competing in the Asian Swimming Championships in Pusan in March followed by the Olympics in September," he said.

The swimmers, and women's diver Shenny Ratna Amalia, are currently groomed for the Olympic Games. Only Siripiya has not qualified for the Olympics and she has one more chance in Pusan's championship from March 29 to April 2. (ivy)