Jakarta shines in the pool
JAKARTA (JP): Elsa Manora Nasution of Jambi took her gold medal tally to 11, but this was still not enough to stop Jakarta's domination of the national age group invitational championships which ended on Saturday.
The gold medals gave Indonesia's Southeast Asian Games mainstay Elsa the title of best swimmer in addition to her victories in the 200-meter butterfly and 800-meter freestyle in the final day of the three-day meet.
Elsa won the 200m butterfly with the time of two minutes and 24.72 seconds, and the 800m freestyle in 9:37,22.
Despite Elsa's convincing form, Jambi finished only fourth overall. Jambi got all its gold medals from Elsa, and with its two silvers and five bronzes, it was seven golds clear behind Central Java.
Jakarta was the undisputed winner with a collection of 23 golds, 16 silvers and 18 bronzes in the championships, which also served as a national selection for the ASEAN age group competition in Bangkok next month and the Asia Pacific swimming meet in Pusan, South Korea this August.
East Java
East Java came a distant second with 18 golds, 29 silvers and 21 bronzes.
Only three national records were broken at the swimming meet, with East Java's Steven Chandra the last one to set a new mark. Steven splashed his way to a record breaking time of 2:12.47 in the age group II on Saturday, shaving 2.81 seconds off Ivan Saad's eight-year-old mark.
The swimming meet also saw a scanty number of participants, as only nine provinces fielded teams in the competition. Some swimmers, including Elsa, won their golds without competition.
Committee chairman Lukman Niode said that many swimmers failed to take part in the championships due to the final school exams now still underway.
Outstanding swimmers like Wisnu Wardana, Richard Sam Bera, Metri Widya Pangestika, Olga Halim and Catherine Surya were among the major absentees. They are undergoing overseas training stints.
Medals table:
G S B Jakarta 23 16 18 East Java 18 29 21 Central Java 17 18 16 Jambi 11 2 5 West Java 7 8 8 Lampung 3 5 1 N. Sulawesi 2 1 2 S. Kalimantan 0 0 5