"We will not burden them with a target because our concentration now is on the 26th SEA Games in South Sumatra and Jakarta in November," Hartadi Nurjojo, the SEA Games national swimming coach, said here on Saturday.
He said the competition at the Shanghai world championship was also very hard for the country`s swimmers to fight as all world swimmers took part in it.
He said it was still very difficult for national swimmers to compete with them. "What is important is for them to perform maximally and improve their time records," he said.
Indonesia will field three swimmers namely Doni B Utomo, Tifani Sudarma and Indra Gunawan, he said.
Indonesia meanwhile also plans to send eight swimmers to Universiade in Shenzen, China, early in August.
The eight swimmers are Glenn Victor, Idham Dasuki, Triadi Fauzi, Nicko Biondi, M Akbar Nasution, Guntur Pratama Putra and two female swimmers Eny Sulistyowati and Katrina M.
"We hope they can keep their fighting spirit and morale because swimmers at the national training center will likely be recruited into the main team to be fielded in the SEA Games," he said.
He said right now there are 28 swimmers in the national training center but four of them have been eliminated.
Two of the four swimmers have moved to open water (a sea swimming branch) and two others have been degraded due to in-disciplinary.
"We do not know the quota for swimming athletes for the SEA Games but I think it will not be far different from the number that we have now which is 24," he said.
He said he predicted it would be 24 to 26. "In case there will be a change in the number of swimmers at national training center it would not be very drastic, perhaps only around 20 percent," he said.
Hartadi said Indonesia targets six gold medals in the next SEA Games. "We would be grateful if the number could be higher as we are the host of the event," he said.
He said the target was set based upon the achievement made by the country`s swimmers in the Asian Games in China sometime ago.
"Our swimmers could outperform their rivals from Southeast Asian countries in China. Glenn Victor, Indra Gunawan, Triadi and Guntur Pratama Putra are expected to be able to achieve it," he said.
(SYS/H-YH)
Editor: Suryanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
