No great flood of golds expected in swimming in SEA Games
No great flood of golds expected in swimming in SEA Games
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
With a small stock of top swimmers, the Indonesian Swimming
Association (PRSI) has a goal of seven golds from the 22 swimming
and diving events its athletes will compete in at November's 23rd
Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
PRSI head of development affairs Lukman Niode said recently
the target was based on the latest performance of the swimmers,
including in the 2005 world championship in Montreal in July.
Men's swimmers are in with a chance for gold in the 4x100 and
4x200 relay, 200 meter butterfly, 400 meters freestyle and 200
meter freestyle from the 12 swimming events Indonesia has entered
at Rizal Memorial Park in Manila.
"In those events, our swimmers could win gold, but the
competition is tight. So whoever is most prepared on the day will
win gold," he said, adding that the national women still lagged
behind their regional counterparts.
Veteran swimmer Donny B. Utomo, freestylist M. Akbar Nasution,
Andi Wibowo, who competes in backstroke and butterfly, and
breastroker Herry Yudhianto are the main contenders. The latter
three competed in the worlds.
In the Asian Age Group Championship in August in Bangkok,
Indonesia won three golds, eight silver and six bronze.
Donny won the 200 m butterfly, the event in which he took
Indonesia's lone swimming gold at the 22nd SEA Games in Hanoi,
while Felix C. Sutanto won the men's 100 m and the national squad
took the men's 4 x 200.
Diving, with Indonesia competing in all 10 events, had better
prospects, especially in the women's 10 meter synchronized and 10
meter diving, he said.
"In the diving events, our athletes could win golds because
they have reached world class standards with degree of difficulty
dives of 3.5, instead of 2.5," he said.
However, he was concerned about the mental toughness of the
divers -- Shenny Ratna Amelia, 21, who was in other gold medalist
from the pool in Hanoi in the 10 meter, and Sari Ambarwati, 14,
-- in the event of biased judging.
National swimming has suffered a downturn in fortune since the
1970s through 1990s, when Richard Sam Bera and Elfira Rosa
Nasution were among those who dominated the regional games.
Lukman was also a 14-time gold medalist in the late 1970s and
early '80s.
Indonesia has been left in the wake of Singapore, Thailand,
the Philippines and Malaysia.
To improve standards, PRSI and the National Sports Council
(KONI) sent 10 swimmers from the elite Indonesia Awakens training
program for overseas training stints earlier this year.
M. Akbar went to Australia, while Felicia Tjandra, Yuliana
Malindha, Magdalena Sutanto, Sherly Yunita, Nancy Suryaatmadja,
Lina Cahya Utami, Bobby Bangkit Guntoro, Andi Wibowo and Herry
Yudhianto trained in the U.S.
Lukman was pleased that the swimmers were not at 100 percent
of their performance yet, which would allow them to peak in
November.
"We don't want to fail in the SEA Games although the event is
not a main target due to our limited stock of swimmers," he said.
The national water polo team is not among the favorites for
gold in Manila.
"We are not really strong in water polo, so if we could get a
medal it would be great for Indonesia," Lukman said.