Richard Sam Bera keeps eye on his competitors
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian swimming ace Richard Sam Bera says he will keep his eyes on Leslie Kwok and Allen Ong in his attempt to maintain his domination at the SEA Games.
Richard is the only Indonesian swim team member who has a chance of winning gold medals in the competition where Thailand and Singapore are beginning to look stronger.
The Jakarta native, who underwent a two-month training camp in the United States, will take to the pool in the men's freestyle 50m and 100m.
"Like me, Leslie Kwok trained in the U.S. We met on two occasions during local tournaments. My time was better than his," Richard said about his potential rival in the 50m.
Richard said he was satisfied with the results of his training in the U.S..
"It gave me a power base, built my endurance and improved my speed," he said. He was coached by Michael Chasson and Victor Wales, the latter being the sprint trainer.
"After an exhausting camp in the U.S., I am now entering the 'unloading' phase, in which I am supposed to reduce the training load without losing power and speed."
On one occasion, he came just within a whisker of his best time of 23.40 seconds he chalked up in Brunei.
He made it at 23.43 seconds at the National Championships in Fresno, California.
Richard predicted the 100m race would be tough, with Allen Ong of Malaysia as the most daunting contender.
"He has been improving since Brunei. He is likely to be the strongest rival as he is on his own turf," said Richard, who added that the Malaysian seems to be concealing his ability from him by not turning up for swimming events.
Despite potential threats by the two, Richard said he was very optimistic about his prospects.
His optimism can be justified by his past record at the SEA Games.
After taking only a silver in his debut in 1987, he has been making an almost clean sweep of the gold in the 100m, with 1991 being an exception.
Richard is also a record holder of this event with his best time of 50.03 seconds set in Brunei.
In the 50m sprint, he has never failed to come out tops in every appearance since 1995.
Richard will join Hendrik Eko, Hanny Dwi Prasetyo and Albert C. Sutanto for the 4x100m but he conceded that the medal winning chances in this event were not as good as in his other areas of specializations.
"Eko and Hanny are not as good as Felix (Sutanto) and Wishnu (Wardhana)," he said, referring to two of the winning teams in the men's 4x100m relay in Brunei.
Richard tipped a Singaporean foursome to win the event, leaving others to battle for a second place.
He will turn 31 this December, but Richard has no plans to retire in the immediate future saying that a swimmer can still craft another piece of achievement at age 33.
Richard, an Arizona State University graduate, was concerned about the national swimming team as it was hard finding second- layer talents to fill the shoes of their slowing seniors.
In an attempt to help bridge the gap between the two swimming generations, Richard and Albert founded the Millennium Aquatic swimming club in Bekasi, in the eastern outskirts of Jakarta. (01)