BOOST: He hopes to earn place in Youth Olympics contingent
JOHOR'S Tia'a Faang Der did his hopes of making the Nanjing Youth Olympics squad no harm after a commendable performance on the final day of the Malaysian Schools Sports Council (MSSM) swimming championships yesterday.
The SMK Desa Skudai student erased Kevin Lim's (Selangor) meet record of two minutes 8.51 seconds (set in 2008) in the boys' Under-18 200 metre butterfly after he clocked 2:07.14s to win the event at the Shah Alam Aquatics Complex.
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| Tia'a Faang Der |
Faang Der, who had earlier won the 200m backstroke and 400m individual medley (IM) titles, said he was delighted to cap his final MSSM championships outing with a win.
"The butterfly is my favourite event and I am glad I lived up to my own expectations to win it,' said the 17-year-old.
"I missed out on winning the 200m IM which was disappointing for me but overall, it feels great to win three gold in my last MSSM tournament.
"I still have another two important tournaments, the National Age Group Championships as well as the Malaysian Open, in the next few months and I am hoping I can continue to improve myself there as I want to make the Nanjing Youth Olympics team this August."
Sarawak star Welson Sim again showed his pedigree after he took almost six seconds off his own record in the Under-18 400m freestyle.
Welson, who had won the 100m, 200m and 1,500m freestyle titles in record times, notched victory in 3:59.65s, erasing his own mark (set last year) of 4:06.04s.
"It has been a great tournament. I won four gold here but more importantly for me, I managed to improve on five of my personal bests," said the Bukit Jalil Sports School student.
Despite notching a personal best, Welson was forced to settle for silver in the 50m freestyle on Thursday after being beaten by Penang's Alwyn Tan.
It was his only defeat in the individual freestyle events.
Selangor's 4x100m freestyle relay team comprising Nicholas Soon, Muhd Arief Mohd Yunus, Tan Yun Hung and Yeap Zheng Yang clinched gold in the event in a new meet record of 3:38.19s.
The previous mark of 3:41.49s was set by Sarawak last year.
As expected, Selangor were crowned the overall champions with 32 gold, 19 silver and 18 bronze.
Kuala Lumpur finished second (20-29-16) and Sarawak third (18-24-18).
Welson was named the male swimmer of the tournament while Nadia Adrianna Redza (Selangor) took the girls' title.
Read more: SWIMMING: Faang Der shines on final day - Other - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/sports/other/swimming-faang-der-shines-on-final-day-1.537429#ixzz2xJTPwKM9
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