BANYUWANGI – 413 participants took part in the Akuatik Swimming Competition which was held on Saturday (30/11) and Sunday (1/12) at Tawang Alun Banyuwangi Sports Hall. Hundreds of swimming athletes consisting of kindergarten and senior high school students throughout Banyuwangi fought to be the fastest in 80 classes.
Banyuwangi Regent Ipuk Fiestiandani opened the competition. During her speech, she mentioned that a lot of benefits can be gained from swimming. Apart from being sports achievement, it can also support the character development of children.
“When children getting used to do sports, swimming for example, they will be accustomed to discipline, supportive, and be able to collaborate,” she said.
Ipuk also invited the public to make good use of the swimming pool facility in the Tawang Alun Sports Hall. According to her, swimming can be one of alternatives in maintaining good physical and mental health of children.
“I hope the athletes’ guardians remain enthusiastic about accompanying their children so they can continue to excel and are healthy physically and mentally,” she added.
The Head of Banyuwangi Akuatik, Aditya Ruli Delianto, explained that this competition is part of swimming athlete development in Banyuwangi. All the athletes who have been training in their own clubs took part in the competition to see who is the fastest in each class.
“We have 413 participants now. The number of applicants is actually more than that, but we have to set a limit in order to reach the efficiency of the competition,” he said.
Adit explained that the participants consist of kindergarten students, or children with age of 5 years old, to senior high school students who are 17 years old and older. The 5 year old children compete in a kick class, or swimming with a board in a shallow pool. “For the 5‐6 year old children, the competition was held in a 20-meters wide pool,” he said.
The Akuatik Competition, he added, will be held once in four months routinely with a hope it can encourage the people to swim. “We can also use this event to do a selection. We can suggest the good athletes to be sent to the Banyuwangi KONI Regency Training Center,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of Banyuwangi KONI wishes that holding swimming competitions regularly can boost the achievements of aquatic sports in the region. So far, Banyuwangi’s aquatic sports achievements have been quite good in the diving branch.
“We hope that with the regular holding of competitions, new outstanding athletes will emerge from the swimming branch,” he concluded.
