Thais grab 12 golds at Bali swimming c'ship

By Lukman Natanagara

DENPASAR (JP): Thailand made a good start on the first day of the 24th Southeast Asia (SEA) Age Group swimming championships here on Friday by capturing 12 golds, seven silvers and eight bronzes.

Tachnaktiranan Pilin gave Thailand three golds in the girls 15-17 age group 400m freestyle, 100m butterfly and 50m freestyle followed by Compepoun Pimpika in the 12-and-under girls 400m freestyle, Chompol Chrokkacw in the 15-17 year girls 100m backstroke, Pethasangroj Tassamol in the 13-14 year girls 200m individual medley and Thanaponsathorn Pichaporn in the 12-and- under girls 200m individual medley.

Thai boys Chanapai Dhiti won the gold in the 400m freestyle and the 200m individual medley in the 13-14 group followed by Panachart Thanaporn in the 12-and-under 400m freestyle, Kithpute Kunanon in the boys 12-and-under 100m backstroke, Winyapragoo Peerapon in the 13-14 boys 100m butterfly.

Singapore was in the second place with six golds, seven silvers and a bronze, the Philippines was third with five golds, a silver and six bronzes, Indonesia is in fourth with three golds, eight silvers and nine bronzes and Vietnam has one silver. Brunei Darussalam did not capture any medals.

Shelomita, Akbar Nasution and Ariel J. Poniman gave Indonesia the three golds. Shelomita won the girls 100m butterfly (13-14), Akbar the 200m individual medley (15-17) and Ariel the 100m flyweight (12 and-under).

The Bali championships are divided into three age groups, the first 15-17 years, the second 13-14 years and the third 11-12 years. It is being contested by 119 swimmers, 68 boys and 51 girls from six countries -- Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Brunei, the Philippines and host Indonesia.

Malaysia, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia skipped the championships.

The championships were opened by National Sports Council (KONI) chairman Wismoyo Arismunandar Friday. Competitions will run until Sunday. It is being held at the Olympic pool of Hotel Bali Cliff, Jimbaran, 30 kilometers from Denpasar.

A Balinese dance with traditional music and the release of balloons and pigeons highlighted the opening ceremony.

Wismoyo said that the championships should be not only for gaining medals but also to foster closer relationships among ASEAN countries.

"Let us not only think of getting medals but better our relationship among the ASEAN nations. Hopefully this championships will bring more swimmers in the following years to come," Wismoyo said.

Commenting on Indonesia's poor performance at the championships, team manager Richard Sam Bera told The Jakarta Post that the local swimmers tried their best but it was difficult to compete with the foreign swimmers.

"Our swimmers were actually good but their stamina are lower than the foreign swimmers, particularly from Thailand and Singapore. I hope we could do better tomorrow (Saturday)," Richard said.

Richard further said that Indonesia had targeted 10 golds at the three-day meet. "Three golds are already a good start."

David Tan , team manager of the Singapore team, was surprised that his country could grab six gold medals when he said: "I didn't expect that much gold on the first day. With six golds on the first day, it is a good start. We hope to do better on the following days."

Tan did not want to state how many medals Singapore could capture and only said that they hope to win the championships.

"We want to win this time because we lost to Thailand last year in our own country," Tan said. Thailand on last year's event grabbed 40 golds.