The Star Online : Fu Kang misses breaststroke treble in Samoa

BY TAN MING WAI

PETALING JAYA: Wong Fu Kang fell short in his bid to bag a glorious breaststroke treble at the Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) in Samoa.

The 17-year-old, who had won the 50m and 100m breaststroke titles earlier, finished second in the 200m event.

The 17-year-old, who had won the 50m and 100m breaststroke titles earlier, could only end up second in the 200m race behind England’s Edward Baxter.

Fu Kang touched the wall at 2:18.18 to improve on his previous personal best of 2:18.20 set at the National Age Group Championship in April. But Baxter was better, clocking 2:15.80.

South Africa’s James Greig Isemonger took bronze in 2:19.99.

Fu Kang admits he has Elvin Chia’s national mark of 2:15.62 in his sights as he aims to be a formidable breaststroke specialist.

Fu Kang holds the national records for both the 50m breaststroke (28.67) and 100m breaststroke (1:02.46).

“I failed to win my third goal, but at least I ended my CYG campaign by setting a new personal best,” said the Phuket-based Fu Kang.

“I’m not that strong in the 200m. I’m certainly going to focus on it in the next few months. For endurance, I guess I need to put a lot of emphasis on aerobics.

“I’m giving myself until the end of the year to try and dip under 2:16 before chasing Elvin’s long-standing record.”

Welson Sim, winner of the 400m freestyle gold, hit a low – clocking 24.35 to finish last in the men’s 50m freestyle final.

Weightlifting contributed its third gold of the week for the Malaysian contingent through Jabriella Teo Samuel in the women’s above 69kg category.

Jabriella clinched gold with a total lift of 186kg, beating Samoa’s Feagaiga Stowers (172kg) and Cameroon’s Rayssa Djifack Ma-atemken Zomgoua (169kg).

Erry Hidayat (men’s 69kg) and Nur Atikah Sobri (women’s 58kg) struck gold in weightlifting on Wednesday.

Malaysia also claimed a bronze in lawn bowls, with Fatin Nurrawiah Shamsudin-Muhd Saifudin Zulkepli beating New Zealand’s Seamus Curtin-Ashleigh Jeffcoat 22-10 for third spot in the mixed doubles event.

Along with the three gold medals from squash on Thursday, the national contingent now have a total haul of 11-3-3 to be placed fourth in the medal standings. Squash completed a clean sweep of all the five gold medals at stake while swimming and weightlifting each contributed three golds in Malaysia’s total medal tally.

Australia (23-18-19) are top of the medal standings, followed by England (12-16-16) and South Africa (12-7-15).

The 11-3-3- haul will be the country’s final tally as well because Malaysia are not represented in rugby 7s and tennis – the last two events before the Games conclude Friday.

Still, it is Malaysia’s best-ever performance at the CYG, surpassing the 6-9-3 haul in the 2004 edition in Bendigo, Australia.

The Star : Malaysian swimmers make big splash in Commonwealth Youth Games

BY LIM TEIK HUAT

PETALING JAYA: Malaysian swimmers Wong Fu Kang and Welson Sim are making big splashes at the Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) in Samoa.

While Fu Kang bagged his second gold medal in as many days, Welson finally got his hand on his first.

First in action on Wednesday was the 17-year-old Fu Kang, who came out tops in 28.92 in the men’s 50m breaststroke – finishing just ahead of South Africa’s James Greig Isemonger, who clocked 29.20 and third-placed Kieran Preston of Scotland.

Fu Kang had won the 100m breaststroke gold on Tuesday.

The Malaysian camp’s celebration had hardly died down when it was Welson’s turn to take to the pool in the 400m freestyle.

The 18-year-old Sarawakian held off a determined Kyle Chisholm of England to win the eight-lap race in 3:54.25. Chisholm settled for silver in 3:54.76 while Australia’s Clyde Lewis got the bronze.

That’s the first time Welson has stood at the top of the podium in the quadrennial Games. He delivered two silver medals in the 200m and 1,500m freestyle races on Monday, and finished fourth in the 100m freestyle on Tuesday.

Malaysian swimmer Welson Sim with the 400m freestyle gold medal he won at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa on Wednesday.

Malaysian swimming coach Paul Birmingham was pleased with the boys, who were the only medal contributors for Malaysia on Wednesday.

It kept Malaysia fourth in the medal standings with a haul of 7-2-2. Australia lead with 15-11-13, followed by South Africa (10-5-8) and England (7-11-11).

“We’ve kept up our medal streak since the first day. Fu Kang clocked good times ... not too far off his national record of 28.67 set at the Singapore SEA Games in June,” said Birmingham.

“Welson is a bit tired as he has been swimming for the last three days. He will finish off with the 50m freestyle tomorrow, but I’m not expecting anything as he is not a sprinter.”

Phuket-based Fu Kang will seek to end his CYG outing on a high by winning the men’s 200m breaststroke on Thursday.

There was also good news from the archery range as Nuramalia Haneesha Mazlan put herself in medal contention after making the semi-finals of the women’s individual recurve.

The 15-year-old from Terengganu received a bye in the first round and beat Charlotte Harris of the Isle of Man 6-5 in the last eight.

The semi-finals will see Nuramalia taking on England’s Elizabeth Warner and India’s Prachi Singh facing Scotland’s Eugenia Helen D’Arcy.

In the boys’ division, Arriffuddinur Zakaria fell at the first hurdle, losing 6-0 to Tonga’s Arne Jensen.

The athletics competition ended on Wednesday with Malaysia finishing empty-handed. In boxing, none of the four pugilists reached the semi-finals.

Fifty-three nations are participating in the CYG, which features nine sports – athletics, boxing, squash, swimming, archery, lawn bowls, rugby 7s, tennis and weightlifting.