Swimmers hope for personal bests at Worlds

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Setting personal bests, not a place on the podium, will be the goal of swimmers M. Akbar Nasution, Andy Wibowo and Herry Yudhianto when they compete at the World Championship next month in Montreal.

"We expect them to better their personal bests in the championship," competition program leader Elfira Rosa Nasution said on Tuesday.

Akbar, who is Elfira's younger brother and is currently training in Australia, recorded a personal best of 4:02 in the 400-meter freestyle last March in Brisbane, she said.

The Asian record for the distance is 3:42.28, set by Japan's Takeshi Matsuda.

The winner of eight golds at last year's National Games has been training in the 400-meter freestyle, 800-meter freestyle, 1500-meter freestyle and 200-meter breaststroke in Australia, which he focused on 10 years ago.

His Australian coach advised him to quit his specialization in the 100 and 200 meters breaststroke and 400-meter individual medley.

Andy, a 100-meter butterfly specialist training in California, equaled his national record of 1:00.05 training there, Elfira said.

The swimmers are part of a group of 10 sent to train abroad in the U.S. and Australia in January of this year in preparation for the 2006 Asian Games.

The National Sports Council (KONI) and the Swimming Association of Indonesia (PRSI) sent Akbar to Australia; Andy, Herry, Nancy Suryaatmaja and Lina Cahya Utami to California; and Yuliana Malindha, Magdalena Sutanto, Felicia Tjandra, Sherly Yunita and Bobby Bangkit Guntoro to Florida.

With their three teammates in Montreal, the other swimmers will continue to train and compete in the U.S., Elfira said.

"They have made progress as they are now at about 97 percent ... of their peak performance," she said.

"However, the progress is still not good enough to win golds in the SEA Games."

Yuliana, 17, surpassed her personal best after only a month in the U.S., while 18-year-old Magdalena is attempting to set a new record in the 800-meters freestyle, Elfira said.