KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 21 — Young national swimmer Bryan Leong splashed his way to two golds today to help the Federal Territories increase their medal haul in the 20th Malaysia Games (Sukma).
Leong was victorious in the men’s 50m breaststroke and 4x100m freestyle finals at the National Aquatic Centre in Bukit Jalil.
In the 50m breaststroke, the 19-year-old athlete clocked a personal best of 29.02 seconds to win gold, beating Sarawak’s Ryan Yii, who took silver (29.08s), and Selangor’s Andrew Goh, who won bronze (29.39s).
Despite competing in more than one event, Leong remained energetic in the relay to help the Federal Territories record a time of three minutes and 25.78s to win gold, ahead of second-placed Selangor (3:28.58s) and bronze medallists Penang (3:31.77s).
Leong also won the 50m butterfly yesterday.
“I’m quite happy with the results especially in the individual event because I didn’t really expect to get gold, which came with a personal best.
“I have more individual events in the next few days, and I hope to try my best to contribute more golds to the Federal Territories,” he told reporters here.
Meanwhile, Sarawak’s young swimmer Kelly Teo has a big mission to break the women’s 800m freestyle national record held by former Olympian Khoo Cai Lin, after winning the event in 9:26.05s.
However, the time recorded by the 16-year-old athlete is still far behind the 8:45.36s set by Cai Lin at the 2009 SEA Games in Vientiane, Laos.
“The 800m freestyle is my favourite event, and I was definitely aiming for gold. I gave my best because all the challengers were very good but my time is still far from the national record. I will keep trying to break it,” she said.
The Kuching-born athlete said: “Honestly, I was a bit stressed today because one of the other targets was to improve my personal best time. I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t do it.”
The silver went to Chu Xin Ying from Sabah with a time of 9:28.04s while Penang’s Hooy Jia Yee took bronze on 9:32.52s. — Bernama
