Christina Has Good Chance To Make Waves At World Meet

PETALING JAYA: Malaysian swimmer Christina Loh can make history in the Peruvian capital of Lima if she rise to the occasion when the World Junior Championships begin tomorrow.

The 16-year-old is the only Malaysian girl in a four-member swimming team for the biennial world junior meet and stands a good chance to make the top eight final in the 50m breaststroke as she is ranked seventh fastest on the seedings list.

Christina entered with a time of 32.31 clocked earlier in the year but she has lowered her personal best to 32.29 at the World Championships in Shanghai last month.

China’s Zhang Siqi has the fastest time of 30.81 in the field of 43 swimmers but Christina can even snatch a possible first-ever medal for the country on the opening day of the meet if she can lower her national record further.

Germany’s Laura Simon and Elisa Antonelli of Italy have the second (31.25) and third (32.07) fastest times respectively in the seedings list.

Christina, who has already qualified on merit for the Indonesia SEA Games in November, also has her eyes set on doing well in the 100m breaststroke race.

“I want to swim well to get a good time in the 100m breaststroke and go under the London Olympic qualifying time of 1:10.89.

“I already did a 1:10.79 at the national age-group meet in March to dip under the Olympic qualifying time but it was not a FINA event.

“I hope to repeat this again and qualify for my first Olympic Games,” said Christina, who will also swim the 200m breaststroke at the world junior meet.

Christina entered her personal best time of 1:10.79 for the 100m breaststroke and she is placed 13th fastest.

Christina and three other swimmers will be making their debut – Ian James Barr, Vernon Lee and Tern Jian Han

Ian will swim the backstroke (50m, 100m and 200m) alongside Jian Han in addition to the individual medley (200m and 400m) races.

Vernon is lined up for the middle and long distance freestyle disciplines (200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m) but it will be tough for them to break into the final as they are not ranked inside the top 10 in their respective events.

Daniel Bego is the only Malaysian to make the podium at the junior meet, bagging two silver medals in Brazil in 2006.