Junior Athlete Elysha Chloe Pribadi Breaks National Swimming Records

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesian swimming athlete Elysha Chloe Pribadi reportedly broke three national records in the 50-meter, 100-meter, and 200-meter breaststroke swimming during two championships held at the Brisbane Aquatic Center in Australia in August and September. 

Elysha broke the latter two records at the 2020 McDonald's QLD short course championship on September 26-17 while the 50-meter record was broken at the 2020 speedo short course meet. 

The 15-year-old’s 100-meter record of 1 minute 10.56 seconds managed to barely break Ressa Kania Dewi’s national record of 1 minute 10.57 seconds. Meanwhile, her 200-meter run recorded a time of 2 minutes 37.56 seconds, breaking Felicia Tjandra’s 14-year old record. 

One month prior in August, Elysha’s performance at the speedo short course meet on August 29 broke the national record for 50-meter breaststroke swimming by recording a time of 33.12 seconds. This surpasses the previous record of 33.61 seconds by Margareta Kreptadani at the 2013 Asian Indoor Martial Arts Games held at South Korea’s Incheon. 

“Under these challenging times, I honestly felt pretty down and spent a lot of time contemplating my future. There was reluctance as I started to train again but I really had to start all over again from scratch,” Elysha wrote in a written statement on Sunday, September 28.

The Indonesian Swimming Association (PRSI) deputy, Harlin Rahardjo, said that they had followed Elysha’s performance since the Indonesia open aquatic championship up until the Southeast Asia level and asserts that a junior like her could possibly be a candidate for Indonesia’s national team to perform at the upcoming 2021 SEA Games.

Read also: Awaiting Indonesian Swimmers' Training Center for Asian Games

ARKHELAUS WISNU TRIYOGO