Ivan gives Indonesia gold from pool

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).