Ivan gives Indonesia gold from pool
Moch. N. Kurniawan and ID Nugroho, The Jakarta Post/Surabaya
Indonesia finally broke its gold drought in the swimming competition at the 12th ASEAN University Games as Thailand continued its gold rush here on Thursday.
Ivan Komara led fellow Indonesian Ariski Darmadi to a one-two finish in the men's 200-meters freestyle. The gold medalist chalked up the best time of 02:02.51, while Ariski followed on 02:03.28.
Benjamin O. of the Philippines took the bronze in 02:03.66. Meanwhile, Thailand kept cashing in with four golds from the pool while Philippines brought home one.
Thursday's program offered only seven golds, with another gold on offer in the basketball court where the home athletes managed to overcome rival Thailand.
In a two-nation basketball competition, Indonesia defeated Thailand in the third match 73-66 after the two teams had evened the score in the previous two matches.
"The athletes played good defense today. They looked to be fired up by yesterday's loss," coach Edy Santoso said after the game.
Indonesia has so far taken a total of 22 golds but is still a distant second behind Thailand, which has 34 golds. Indonesia's golds were won in badminton (4), athletics (7), pencak silat (9), swimming (1) and basketball (1).
With Thailand poised to top the medal table, as it did two years ago, Indonesia's position in second place looks intact with Malaysia having collected only eight golds to take third place.
The Philippines is in fourth place with four golds, followed by Vietnam (2) and Singapore (1). Brunei, Laos, Cambodia and Timor Leste have yet to win a gold.
Thailand's domination of the pool left Indonesian swimming coach Radja M. Nasution blaming a lack of preparation for his swimmers' poor performance.
He said the swimmers had reached their peak during the 2004 National Games in September.
"Afterwards, they had to deal with the Ramadhan fasting month and Idul Fitri vacation ... therefore, it was difficult to monitor the way they trained during this period," Radja said, adding that the members of the team had not participated in a special training program for the event.
"But, we hope we can win one or two more golds in the last two days of the competition," he said, adding that he hoped the team could surpass the medal total it notched up in the Philippines two years ago.
Phatthanan Tananuprawat, the head coach of Thailand's team was delighted with his athletes performance, putting their success down to regular training.
"We only prepared them for 15 days before the University Games but they had been training on a daily basis in their clubs," Tananuprawat said.
"So, there has been no special training program for this event."
According to Tananuprawat, there are more than 100 swimming clubs in Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand, with hundreds more across the country.
"They (the clubs) have their own training schedules, with training sessions usually held in the morning and evening," he said.
Besides regular training in the clubs, the Thai Swimming Association also held national competitions four times a year.
"We can identify good swimmers during the national competitions," he said.
Thailand has now collected 13 golds from the swimming pool, which has a total of 64 on offer during the event. Another 17 will be up for grabs in the remaining two days of competition.
On Thursday, more golds will be on offer in pencak silat (9), tennis (5), volleyball (1) and table tennis (1).