No more medals for RI swimmers in Pusan

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)