KUALA LUMPUR: Swimmer Khoo Cai Lin put one foot on the plane to the London Olympics next year after achieving the qualifying standard for the women’s 800m freestyle on the final day of the Malaysian Open championships at National Aquatic Centre in Bukit Jalil yesterday.
Cai Lin, representing Selangor, successfully held off a strong challenge from Hong Kong’s Natasha Tang to clock 8:49.28 to dip under the London Olympic invitation time of 8:51.82.
Natasha lost steam in the final moments to settle for silver in 8:52.64 while Vietnam’s Le Thi My Thao took the bronze in 9:17.26.
Cai Lin did not better her previous Malaysian Open meet record of 8:48.53 set last year, which made her the first Malaysian to win a place in the world championships in Shanghai in July.
But Cai Lin, who also won the 400m freestyle race on Saturday, was pleased to have made a big step towards a second consecutive Olympic appearance early in the qualifying campaign. She is also the only Malaysian swimmer to manage to do so at the home Open. The time standards for swimming at the London Olympics comprise Olympic qualifying time and Olympic invitation time.
Any swimmer who meets the much faster Olympic qualifying time is an automatic entry for the event at the Games.
A swimmer reaching Olympic invitation time standard is eligible for entry depending on the rankings and a country can only have one representative in each event.
The international federation for aquatics, FINA, also can give wildcard entries to one male and one female competitor if the country fails to have any qualifier.
“I’m happy to swim a personal best time for the 800m freestyle this year. It was only the first competitive race for me and I would have confirmed my place for the Olympics under the previous system,” said Cai Lin.
“But I definitely need to swim a better time before the Olympic qualifying period ends sometime in June next year.
“I still have the world championships in July and the Indonesia SEA Games at the end of the year. These are the major meets for me to post much better times to improve on my rankings.”
Kevin Yeap was the other Malaysian swimmer to make the top of the podium yesterday, winning the men’s 1,500m freestyle in 15:52.84 to better his previous meet record of 15:55.64 set last year.
Vernon Lee of Sarawak took silver in 16:04.62 ahead of Vietnam’s Pham Thanh Nguyen, who finished in 16:06.69.
Foo Jian Beng set a new national record of 23.42 in finishing fourth in the men’s 50m freestyle. His previous national record of 23.45 was set at the 2008 Sukma (Malaysia Games) in Kuala Terengganu.
India’s Khade Virdhawal won the event in 23.01, eclipsing his own meet record of 23.03 set three years ago.
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