Malaysia Open: Andrew Makes A Splash By Breaking National Record

KUALA LUMPUR, May 24 (Bernama) -- National swimmer Andrew Goh made a splash on the second day of the 66th Malaysia Open Swimming Championships by setting a new men’s 100 metre (m) breaststroke national record here.

The 20-year-old swimmer shattered the previous record of 1 minute and 2.34 seconds (s) held by Ng Jing Fu of Selangor in 2019, clocking 1:02.30s during the tournament held at the National Aquatic Centre, Bukit Jalil, here.

However, the result was not enough for the Selangor athlete to emerge champion as he settled for bronze behind Ronan Zuberg Wantenaar of Namibia (1:02.10s) and India’s Likith Selvaraj Prema (1:02.21s).

After securing silver in the men’s 200m breaststroke yesterday, Andrew was delighted to break the national record today and attributed his success to the new national swimming coach from Canada, Eric Anderson, who joined the team in February.

“The funny thing was when I was warming up, I told my friend that I felt something good was coming and it turned out to be a new national record, so I think my hard work paid off.

“I was in state training before, but I came back to the national camp over five weeks ago, and I could see a lot of improvement when I trained under Erik. He is a great coach and I look forward to working alongside him in the future,” he told reporters after the race.

In another event, Terengganu swimmer Arvin Shaun Singh Chahal conquered the men’s 200m freestyle with 1:49.39s to leave behind Kuala Lumpur’s Jayden Tan who claimed silver (1:50.76s) and bronze went to Muhammad Dhuha Zulfikry (1:51.69s).

Meanwhile, Thea Blomsterberg of Denmark set a time of 1:08.35s to clinch the women’s 100m breaststroke gold, erasing the eight-year-old meet record of 1:08.65s held by national swimmer Phee Jinq En.

Jinq En of Selangor won silver with 1:09.42s while Tan Rouxin from Johor earned the bronze (1:13.07s).

The four-day meet which kicked off yesterday will conclude this Sunday.

-- BERNAMA