Swimmers need sustainable training to regain supremacy

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.