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.