No more medals for RI swimmers in Pusan

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia failed to earn more medals in the Sixth Asian Swimming Championship's final day at Pusan, South Korea after its swimmers only managed to finish below the top three.

Sprinter Richard Sam Bera finished sixth in the men's 50m freestyle, clocking in at 23.73 seconds, which was 0.24 seconds slower than his best time in the 1999 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Brunei Darussalam.

The gold medal went to Chinese Jiang Cheng Ji, whose time of 22.84 was closely trailed by Kim Min-suk of South Korea with 22.99 and Wu Qing of China with 23.31.

In the men's 200m individual medley, Felix Christiadi Sutanto of Indonesia only placed seventh with 2:08.84. However, his time was enough to qualify him for the Olympic Games in Sydney in September.

Ouyang Kunpeng clinched China's domination by grabbing the gold in the event after producing a time of 2:04.51, followed by Tateishi Tomonori of Japan with 2:05.28 and Han Kyu-chul of South Korea with 2:06.15.

Indonesian junior Muhammad Akbar Nasution came in sixth place in the men's 200m breaststroke by clocking in at 2:22.98. The 17- year-old swimmer failed to equal his best time in the SEA Games -- 2:20.59.

Malaysian Elvin Chia Tshun Thau acquired gold for his country after hitting the finish line at 2:16.20, followed by Cheng Hao of China at 2:18.53 and Li Tsung Chuen of China Taipei at 2:19.89.

The Indonesian men's team also failed to fulfill the target set by the Indonesian Swimmer Federation (PRSI), finishing in fifth place in the 400m medley relay at 3:53.85.

The team also failed to qualify for the Olympics, whose limit time is 3:46.00.

China grabbed the gold at 3:46.13 followed by host South Korea at 3:48.94 and Japan at 3:49.03.

Team manager, Gerald Item, told The Jakarta Post from Pusan that he was not satisfied with the results.

"Their time was not as well as we expected. I don't mean to make excuses, but the water in the pool was too cold for our swimmers. Some countries also complained of this. Most Southeast Asian countries also failed to reach their best times here," he added.

"If we look at the time and ranking, only Richard and Albert qualify for the Olympics. But I will have to report the results to the official in charge of athletes development (Patuan Simatupang) before reporting it to the National Sports Council (KONI) to decide if we will send them to the Olympics." (yan)