Young Felicia fired up by pool challenge

Muhammad Uzair, The Jakarta Post/Palembang

She is only 12 years old but she has already beaten older girls in the swimming pool.

Competing against the more experienced Magdalena Susanto of Jambi and Renate Lumban Toruan of Jakarta, Felicia did not feel overawed and swam her way to victory in the 200-meter breaststroke, in 2:45.66 seconds, to give East Java one of its six gold in swimming.

Felicia's feat at the Tirta Randik swimming pool in Sekayu helped her team to position them second place in the provisional standings in swimming behind Jambi, which tops the table with 20 gold.

Felicia said she was satisfied with her performance.

"I'm quite happy with the victory. It was quite tough out there," she said.

She was still relishing her achievement when The Jakarta Post met her at the team's compound in Sekayu Muba on Wednesday.

Felicia, who was born on March 3, 1992, also competed in the 200-meter backstroke, team relay and 50-meter breaststroke, but was not as successful as in the 200-meter breaststroke.

Shortly before she was about to compete in her next race, Felicia said that she was already excited with her one gold.

"Who doesn't want to win medals? I'd love to get more. I will need to sharpen my skills. By the way, one gold is enough at the moment. That's what we had been expecting at the Games," she said.

"I tried my best. The older girls still proved their mettle," she said.

Felicia, whose height of 150 centimeters makes her look diminutive compared to other swimmers, had been groomed in an intensive training regime prior to the Games.

She took a two-week outing to Beijing where she and teammates trained at Beijing Sport University.

"We trained hard on a tight schedule. It's paid off now that I have won gold," she said.

Felicia is currently a first grade student at Cita Hati Junior High School (SMP), Surabaya. With her involvement in PON, she has had to temporarily abandon classes.

"I can't avoid evading school," she said, adding that she will take extra lessons to catch up.

Felicia said she took up swimming when she was five. Her parents Antono Tjandra and Lienik Santono enlisted her at the Hiu (means shark) swimming club under the coaching of Sandy Sutani.

"My father wants me to become a strong swimmer," she said.

At 11, she was already a member of the Indonesian swimming team for last year's Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Vietnam.

Although she had yet to have a winning streak, her coach said she swam quite strong, sending a warning about her potential exploit in the future.

"This is my first gold," she said.

She said swimming gave her an enterprising challenge to take, but Felicia, who also puts education as one of her priorities, appeared to be reserved about her obsession.

"I can't expect much, as yet. I will need to hone my swimming skills by training hard. I have to go to school while I am swimming," she said.