Swimmers need sustainable training to regain supremacy

By Ivy Susanti

JAKARTA (JP): Until the early 1990s, Indonesian swimmers still reigned in the Southeast Asian region. The top ones also managed to perform in the Olympic Games, although they could not match world standards and never reached the finals.

In recent years, Indonesia has witnessed the rise of swimmers from its less-populated neighbors. Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore raced with a narrow margin to win spots in the world rankings.

In the 1999 SEA Games, held for the first time in Brunei Darussalam, Thai swimmers dominated the medal standings, followed by Malaysia and Singapore. Games first-timers like Thai's Pilin Tachakittiranan could even sharpen the Games record to trail the achievement of Singapore's golden girl Joscelin Yeo Wei-ling.

Yeo, a biology student at the University of California at Berkeley, and Pilin, a high-school student, collected six golds each. Yeo set six new SEA Games records while Pilin had two.

Kongsak Charoenruk, an official at the Department of Physical Education of the Thailand's Ministry of Education, said the Thai swimmers were groomed in clubs from an early age.

"They have been training in the club since the age of five. When they grow up, they want to be athletes. At 18, they are invited to join the national team," he told The Jakarta Post here last week.

"In Thailand, the clubs organize the competitions, which could be held three times annually."

Kongsak said the government offered a small amount of money to attract children to attend the training sessions, but it provided free-of-charge swimming pools and scholarships for the talented ones.

"The government only gives them small allowances for transportation and for buying food during practicing. So don't be surprised if you find out that the talented swimmers come from the rich families. The talented swimmers could study abroad after scholarships are offered by the country and also their clubs," he said.

The Malaysian government launched a special project, called "Gemilang Project", last year to groom their young swimmers for the 2001 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur, according to the technical chairman for the Malaysian school, Mazlan Abdullah.

"The swimmers are trained in schools and clubs at an early age. When they reach 13 and they can perform well in various tournaments like inter-school meetings, we invite them to join this project," he told the Post.

He said the government provided the swimmers with training, equipment, night classes, pocket money and free schooling.

Here, the Indonesian Swimming Federation (PRSI) is still looking for a proper training method to groom young swimmers for regional and world championships.

PRSI's deputy chief of athlete development, Kristiono Sumono, said Indonesia's young swimmers could not advance at full tilt because of the lack of pools for training. He said they also often had to choose between their sport and school.

"We don't have cheap pools to train large groups of swimmers. We only have the Senayan swimming pool and others from the state- run sports complex (GOR). But the pools at the GOR are usually not hygienic," he said. The Senayan pool is used by various local clubs for training.

"Some schools have swimming as extra-curricular classes. But the activity only teaches the students to float on water and does not interest them in a career in swimming," said Kristiono, a former national swimmer.

In order to attract the swimmers, he said the government should offer scholarships instead of life insurance for swimmers who managed to win championships.

"We want swimming careers to progress together with education levels. All our swimmers are well-educated," he said.