Veteran Richard back in the swim of things

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (JP): Shortly after the 1997 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Jakarta, Richard Sam Bera announced his retirement to concentrate on his job as an assistant coach at Arizona State University, his alma mater.

Two years later, his name was on back on the list of Indonesia's contingent. Many eyebrows were raised over his decision to return to the pool.

With a gold-medal performance at the current Games, Richard has shown that the selectors were right and proved his doubters wrong.

He retained his 100-meter freestyle in a record-breaking time of 51.03 seconds on Monday, slicing 28 hundredths of a second off the mark set by teammate Wisnu Wardhana in 1993.

"I feel great at being able to improve my best time. I have been out of the pool for about one and a half years, and I only started training for the Games in April. Apparently I'm still good," he told reporters after the medal ceremony.

His winning time was well inside the Olympic Games qualifying time of 52.30, and he has no reason to turn down another shot at the world's largest sporting event to be held in Sydney next year.

The 27-year-old bachelor has canceled his retirement plan with his qualification for the 2000 Olympic Games.

"I plan to compete in the Olympics but it will be up to the Indonesian Swimming Federation (PRSI) to send me to Sydney. So far, I have received the green light from PRSI," he said.

Richard plans to train in Arizona with coach Michael Chasson for the quadrennial event.

"It's better for me to return to the United States because my coach has arranged a special training program for me," he said.

Richard made a winning debut at the SEA Games in 1989, triumphing in his favorite 100m freestyle. He lost to Wisnu Wardhana in 1993, but regained the crown in the next two consecutive meets.

The golden boy also shone in the 50m freestyle event.

"I started to collect gold in the 50m freestyle in the 1995 SEA Games," he said, adding that his target was to beat the SEA Games record of 23.27 seconds set by Singaporean Ang Peng Siong in 1989.

"The record has stood for a decade and I want to break it," he said enthusiastically.

The 1997 graduate of the School of Economy and Political Science added: "I really got out of the pool when coaching the students. I just gave them instructions from the side of the pool and never went into the water." (ivy)