Su Jie Shocked By Solo Title After Making Drastic Changes

KUALA Lumpur's Chan Su Jie, who changed her choreography, routine and music recently, surprised even herself by winning the gold medal in the solo synchronised swimming competition at the Aquatic Centre in Paroi yesterday.

The 19-year-old Su Jie, who leads the field in the figures routines with a score of 38.750 on Friday, registered 37.948 yesterday in the free routines event for a total score of 76.698.

The Sarawak duo of Shareen Png and Choulyin Tan accumulated 75.698 and 71.732 points to bag the silver and bronze respectively.

Su Jie, who finished last in the 2000 Penang Sukma, said that she was surprised to win the solo event.

Selangor's Suzanna Ghazali (foreground) and Sara Kamil Yusof performing en route to winning the duet event of the synchronised swimming competition yesterday.

“I was not too happy with my earlier routines and music and decided to changed it only one-and-half weeks ago,” she said.

“I was still not perfect in my choreography and routines and thought that I will not be able to score high points. But much to my surprise I performed well.”

Synchronised swimming was not in the programme at the last Games in Kota Kinabalu two years ago.

Su Jie, who is doing A-Levels at Cempaka College in Cheras, added that the gold she won yesterday had inspired to train much harder in her preparation for the 2006 Asian and Commonwealth Games.

“I am also hoping to compete in the 2008 Beijing Olympics,” said Su Jie, who is coached by Hazrima Sofian.

Su Jie also won a bronze in the duet event yesterday. She partnered Jillian Ng and they chalked up a score of 75.069. The KL duo, who amassed 36.402 points in the figure competition, registered a 38.667 for the routine event.

The gold medallists of the 2001 SEA Games in KL, Sara Kamil Yusof and Suzanna Ghazali, won the gold with a score of 79.312.

Sara and Suzanna, who had been recalled from Vancouver for the Games, accumulated 37.312 points in the figures competition added a 42.000 to their score from the routines.

Shareen won her second silver medal of the day in the duet, partnering Victoria John to a total of 76.485 points, 37.235 from figures and 39.250 from the routines.

The team competition will be held today and Selangor, led by Sara and Suzanna, are the odds-on favourites.