KUALA LUMPUR: A touch of Bollywood glamour helped the Negri Sembilan synchronised swimming team pull the rug from under favourites Penang and Selangor in the combo competition at the National Aquatics Centre in Bukit Jalil yesterday.
The team comprising Fatin Syazwani Abdul Rahim, Gan Zhen Yu, Chai Jia Yue, Gan Hua Wei, Ili Gan, Nur Faqihah Abdul Halim, Nurul Atiqah Hanafiah, Tan Jia Hui, Tan Jia Hih and Wong Xin Ying performed to the Hindi hit song, Discowale Kisko, and earned 73.600 points to snatch the last gold medal offered in synchronised swimming.
Penang, who bagged the two gold medals in team disciplines on Thursday, took silver on 70.400 while Selangor, despite having internationals Katrina Ann Hadi and Lee Yhing Huey, settled for bronze on 66.500.
The triumph also brought much satisfaction to the Negri swimmers, who sacrificed their spare time in the last six months to prepare for Sukma.
Golden bunch: The Negri Sembilan team posing after winning the synchronised swimming combo gold Sunday. — SHAHRUL FAZRY/The Star“We have to thank our Chinese coach (Hu Shuxia) for guiding us. She has been with us for eight years and she chose the song for our performance,” said 14-year-old Syazwani.
The 15-year-old Zhen Yu said that winning the combo gold medal was a pleasant surprise as they were expecting Penang and Selangor to put up stronger performances.
“We got a fast-paced song and thankfully, we clicked well,” she said.
Both Syazwani and Zhen Yu combined for the bronze in the duet free event last Saturday. The duo are among the swimmers training in Bukit Jalil and they now hope to make their international debut at the Indonesia SEA Games in November.
The Amateur Swimming Association of Negri Sembilan secretary, Andy Low, was relieved they had a gold medal to show.
“We were confident of challenging strongly for gold today as it combined the scores for technical and overall impression. We had come out tops in the national age-group meet in this event,” he said.
“We finished with silver in the team free and technical events on the first day of competition.”
Selangor emerged overall winners in synchronised swimming with three gold medals. Penang bagged two while Federal Territories had one from the duet free event.
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