Kevin Tunes Up For Sukma With Gold Medal in 200m Butterfly

By Lim Teik Huat

Silver finish: Ian James Barr splashing his way to second place in the 400m individual medley of the Malaysian Open swimming championships in Bukit Jalil yesterday. — GLENN GUAN / The Star


KUALA LUMPUR: Youngster Kevin Lim sent a timely warning to his rivals ahead of the Sukma (Malaysia Games) next month by bagging his first gold in the Malaysian Open swimming championships at the National Aquatic Centre in Bukit Jalil yesterday.

The 17-year-old quit the full-time national training programme more than a month ago but still showed that he had the legs for the Sukma campaign by winning the 200m butterfly event from behind.

Kevin took over the lead with 100m to go and continued to push on to grab the gold medal in 2:06.13, ahead of Singapore national swimmer Rainer Ng (2:06.84). Hong Kong’s Cheng Ka Chun was third in 2:09.15.

Rainer had earlier won the gold medal in the 50m backstroke event.

Kevin is also the only male swimmer to have qualified for the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in August. Malaysia’s second representative in the Youth Olympics, Sabah’s Lai Wei Li is skipping this week’s meet.

But as far as Kevin is concerned, it’s all about tuning up nicely for the Sukma in Malacca from June 10-19, as he is determined to defend his 200m butterfly gold medal for Kuala Lumpur.
“I have been training with the Kuala Lumpur squad since last month because of my studies at Inti College in Subang Jaya,” said Kevin.

“I did not expect to produce this time as I was supposed to taper off here.
“My goal is to do well in the Malacca Sukma. I won gold in the 200m butterfly and bronze in the 1,500m freestyle.

“I hope to make it a double win in Malacca,” added Kevin, who is restricted to two individual events due to having competed at the Laos SEA Games last December and earning a bronze in the process.

Kevin will swim in the 200m and 400m freestyle at the Youth Olympics.

Other Malaysian swimmers who mounted the top of the podium yesterday were Chui Lai Kwan, Foo Jian Beng and Yap See Tuan.

Lai Kwan, the 2007 Korat SEA Games gold medallist, bagged the women’s 100m freestyle gold medal for Sabah in 58.27, which was outside her national record of 57.59 set at the Laos SEA Games last year.

Jian Beng claimed a gold for Selangor in winning the men’s 100m freestyle in 54.13.
See Tuan came out tops for Pahang in his pet 100m breaststroke race. He came out tops in 1:05.34, ahead of Hong Kong’s Fu Chun Pong (1:05.76).

Singapore’s Shana Lim sank the only meet record en route to winning the 50m backstroke in 29.72.

Shana dipped under Lai Kwan’s previous record of 30.77 when she clocked 30.57 in the morning heats before further improving on it in the final.

Laos SEA Games five-gold medallist Daniel Bego was conspicuous by his absence from the Malaysian Open this year because he had to prepare for the A-level exams next month.
Swimmers from Singapore, Hong Kong and Iran are also competing in the four-day meet.