TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Sport: Bali SouthEast Asia Pacific Masters Swimming
“Swim your way to a healthy lifestyle with friends”One can be forgiven for not having plans for Saturday mornings as most of us would rather have that well-earned extended sleep, extra sips of that hot enlivening coffee or more warm, buttered toast
Change Size
“Swim your way to a healthy lifestyle with friends”
One can be forgiven for not having plans for Saturday mornings as most of us would rather have that well-earned extended sleep, extra sips of that hot enlivening coffee or more warm, buttered toast. However, a friend recommended that, being an islander and surrounded by coasts and beaches, I should embrace what the island has in abundance, beaches from which to swim.
With the recent emergence of healthy lifestyle campaigns across the nation, many easily accessed sports and physical activities are blooming and taking a well-established place among the routines of frequent sports-goers and non-sports-goers (like me) alike. With cycling and running becoming more and more popular and regular national and international competitions being held on the island, swimming is starting to become the next big thing among Indonesians.
On June 14, INAMasters organized the first Bali South-East Asia Pacific (SEAP) Masters swim meet at Bali Island School, Sanur. Bali SEAP was the fourth event since it was launched in 2014. This time, what had started out as a meet for friends who love swimming, was noticeably seeing more international participants, including from Australia, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, the Philippines and Malaysia.
Although the event itself is designed as a competition, the ambiance and spirit were much more about fun, meeting people and the unique friendship between competing camps as everyone cheered for anyone deemed worthy. Swimmers from each camp cheered each other to support their friends, while everyone cheered for the newbies and senior swimmers. Notably, the presence of 83-year-old Aussie, Bobbie Lea, was an inspiration for everyone attending, participants, supporters and bystanders alike.
Inspired by master swimming, which has been popular in the US since the 1970s, with one vision in mind, namely to encourage more adults to lead healthy lifestyles through swimming, Jaquatics and INAMasters Swimming Jakarta launched the first Southeast Asia Pacific Masters (SEAPMasters) in 2014. Singapore followed with SEAPMasters in 2015.
For non-former swimmers, this event is to set to benchmark their fitness level improvement after adopting swimming over recent months.
Francois Gontha, one of the participants, felt that the event set a new dimension for swimming and allowed adults to believe that everyone could swim to stay fit and compete in their own league.
Former national swimming athlete and currently executive head coach of Jaquatics and SEAPmasters Indonesia, Wisnu Wardhana, believed that the event could go on to become the next big thing after running, and he was excited about helping promote swimming as a more and more integrated habit.
In good news for us, he also is looking to conduct a follow-up event that not only takes place in the confines of a swimming pool but also in a swim-friendly, safe open-water area to help promote swimming from the beaches around the island.
