Siew Siew Brings Sarawak Swimming Gold To Three

MELAKA: Sarawak swimmer Hii Siew Siew stole the limelight at Aquatics Centre, Hang Jebat Sports Complex yesterday when she won the women’s 200m butterfly in a new record time of 02:20.66.

ANOTHER BRONZE: (From left) Esther Yii, Grace Yii, Erika Kong and Siew Siew. • Photo by Davidson Kho
Coming in second in 02:20.91 was Chong Siew Mun of Kuala Lumpur while another Sarawakian Angela Chieng took the bronze with a time of 02:28.32.

The old meet record of 02:20.70 was held by Sia Wai Yen of Kuala Lumpur set in 2000.

Sarawak won another bronze in the women’s 4×100m freestyle relay when they clocked 04:07.29 behind the gold medallists from Sabah whose time was 03:59.33 while Kuala Lumpur finished second in 04:05.80.

Sarawak were represented by Erika Kong, Siew Siew, Esther Yii and her sister Grace Yii.

With yesterday’s gold from Siew Siew, the state swimmers have so far won three golds and achieved their medal target.

Amateur Swimming Association of Sarawak (Asas) secretary Paul Lim said it was an extraordinary achievement as he did expect the golds to come together with the meet records.

On Saturday, Erika and Brian Derrick Lim brought a golden cheer to the Sarawak contingent when they won in their respective events – women’s 100m breaststroke and men’s 50m backstroke.

Erika clocked 01:12.45 to erase the old record time of 01:13.54 created by Siow Yi Ting in 2002 while Brian registered a new time of 27.81 in the men’s 50m backstroke to erase the old mark of 27.91 set by Linvern Lim of Sabah in 2004.

“I am happy that we have reached our three-gold medal target but disappointed that we lost the gold in the men’s 50m butterfly yesterday,” he said.

According to Lim, Brian failed to win the gold because he paused at the start as he thought it was a false start.

As a result, he lost precious seconds and missed the gold by 0.16s.

Lim said Brian had previously recorded the best time in the event and there was no one near that mark.

“We are hoping to reap more golds through Erika and Brian in the women’s 200m breaststroke and men’s 100m butterfly tomorrow,” said Lim.

Eight more golds are on offer on the fourth day of swimming competition today.

The events are men’s 100m butterfly, men’s 200m breaststroke, men’s 400m freestyle, men’s 4×200m freestyle relay, women’s 100m butterfly, women’s 200m breaststroke, women’s 400m freestyle and women’s 4×200m freestyle relay.

Swimming: Kevin Comes From Behind To Bag Gold

Arnaz M. Khairul arnaz@nstp.com.my

KEVIN Lim prepared for an all-out assault on the Malaysia Games next month by delivering his first gold medal in the Malaysian Open Swimming Championships at the National Aquatics Complex in Bukit Jalil yesterday.

Having quit the national squad a month ago, Kevin came from behind to bag the 200m butterfly gold medal ahead of top Singaporean Rainer Ng and also booked his place as the only male swimmer representing the country in the Youth Olympics in Singapore in August. Kevin's strong final 100m in the event saw him deliver a two minutes 06.13s time, to deny Ng his second gold medal of the day after winning the 50m backstroke earlier."I went back to train with the Federal Territories squad since last month because of my studies at Inti College in Subang Jaya," said Kevin. "I was not expecting to produce this time as I was supposed to taper here.
My goal is to do well in the Malaysia Games.

I won gold in the 200m butterfly and took another bronze in the 1,500m freestyle last time out and I want to better that this time." In the women's section, Sabah's national swimmer Chui Lai Kwan bagged the women's 100m freestyle gold medal in 58.27s, which was some way off her own national record of 57.59s set at the Laos Sea Games last year

RESULTS: Men-- 50m backstroke: 1 Rainer Ng (Sin) 27.26s, 2 Jamal Chavoshi (Irn) 27.74s, 3 Lo Wai Man (Hkg) 27.92s, 100m freestyle: 1 Foo Jian Beng 52.54s, 2 Khajagi Soroushi (Irn) 54.18s, 3 Nathaniel Lai (Hkg) 54.35s, 100m breast stroke: 1 Rainbow Ip (Hkg) 1:13.68s, 2 Christina Loh (KL) 1:14.03s, 3 Sarah Ho (Hkg) 1:18.23s, 200m butterfly: 1 Kevin Lim (KL) 2:06.13s, 2 Rainer Ng (Sin) 2:06.84s, 3 Cheng Ka Chun (Hkg) 2:09.15s, 400m individual medley: 1 Ahmad Reza Jalali (Irn) 4:42.02s, 2 Ian James Barr (KL) 4:43.06s, 3 Keith Sin (Hkg) 4:48.49s; Women -- 50m backstroke: 1 Shana Lim (Sin) 29.72s (meet rec), 2 Vivian Lai (Hkg) 31.09s, 3 Chui Lai Kwan (Sab) 31.12s, 100m freestyle: 1 Chui Lai Kwan (Sab) 58.27s, 2 Shana Lim (Sin) 58.74s, 3 Khoo Cai Lin (Sel) 59.19s, 100m breaststroke: 1 Yap See Tuan (Pah) 1:05.34s, 2 Fu Chun Pong (Hkg) 1:05.76s, 3 Mark Tan (Sin) 1:06.38s, 200m butterfly: 1 Wong Yee Ching (Hkg) 2:19.78s, 2 Hii Siew Siew (Swk) 2:24.11s, 3 Chan Ka Ya (Hkg) 2:28.61s, 400m individual medley: 1 Sarah Ho (Hkg) 5:14.12s, 2 Gladys Ho (Hkg) 5:18.72s, 3 Mak Ai Sin (KL) 5:44.31s.

Hii And Five Others Not Sure of Spots In Youth Olympics

PETALING JAYA: Sarawakian Hii Siew Siew, who was named the outstanding female swimmer in the national schools (MSSM) championships in Shah Alam last week, will have to wait along with five others to find out whether they will be on the plane to Singapore for the Youth Olympics.

Siew Siew, who hails from Sibu, beat the qualifying standards for the 100m and 200m butterfly events in the inaugural Games, which will be held from Aug 14-26, for swimmers between the ages of 16 and17-years-old.

Siew Siew smashed eight-year-old MSSM records in the 100m and 200m butterfly held by Cindy Ong in her first outing in the 16-18 age-group to show that she is on track to deliver a double for Sarawak in Sukma (Malaysia Games) in Malacca in June.

The other female swimmers who have surpassed the qualifying marks are Sabah’s Lai Wei Li (200m and 400m freestyle), Perak’s Cheng Karmen (200m individual medley and 200m backstroke) and Johor’s Low Xue Ting (100m freestyle).

Wei Li, who bagged nine gold medals in the MSSM last week, is incidentally coached by former international Lim Keng Liat, who is the chef-de-mission of the Malaysian contingent for the Youth Olympics.

Malaysia have two male swimmers who have beaten the qualifying marks – Penangite James Chen (100m freestyle) and Perakian Kevin Yeap (200m and 400m freestyle).

The Amateur Swimming Union of Malaysia (Asum) secretary, Edwin Chong, said that those who had beaten the qualifying times were still not assured of getting to compete in the Games.
“There is a cap of 400 competitors for swimming and those who have beaten the qualifying times will be listed based on their rankings,” he said.

“The qualifying period ends on March 31 and the last championships for our swimmers to beat the marks were the national age-group in Bukit Jalil two weeks ago.

“We have to wait for FINA to come up with the list of swimmers who will get to compete in the Games. But we can be assured of having at least one male and one female swimmer.”
Sarawak also have one of their own in aquatics with Pandelela Rinong down for the diving competitions in the 10m platform and 3m springboard events.

Pandelela made the Games in style by taking gold in the 10m platform and silver in the 3m springboard in the qualifiers in Guadalajara, Mexico, recently.
The male representative for diving is Penangite Ooi Tze Liang, who also made the cut for both individual events.

Tight Schedule Is A Dampener

Siow Yi Ting and

Daniel Bego

Cai Lin Smashes Nurul Huda's Longest-Standing National Record

Sarawakian Qualifies for Second Butterfly Event in Asian Youth Games

Click image to read article

Hii Siew Siew