Christina Is First Malaysian Swimmer To Reach Final In The World Juniors

PETALING JAYA: Young swimmer Christina Loh, the only ‘rose among the thorns’, made a breakthrough peformance for Malaysia by reaching the 50m breaststroke final in her maiden participation in the World Junior Championships in Lima on Wednesday.

The 16-year-old overcame jet-lag and the cold weather to earn a creditable sixth place finish for Malaysia after clocking 32.65 in the final, won by Lisa Fissneider of Italy in 31.51.

She became the first Malaysian woman swimmer to qualify for a world junior championships final after clocking the seventh fastest time of 32.59 in the semi-finals.

Christina started well in the preliminaries as she clocked the fourth fastest time of 32.36 on Tuesday.

Although Christina did not manage to improve on her national record of 32.29 set at the World Championships in Shanghai last month, it was another encouraging sign ahead of the Indonesia SEA Games later in November.

Christina will be making her second appearance at the SEA Games and the hope is on her to power her way to bag the gold medal in the 50m breaststroke race in Palembang, which will be contested for the first time.

National coach Paul Birmingham said Christina gave a good account of herself by making the final when the expectations were not on her.

“It’s a bonus as I said earlier it will already be good if our swimmers can reach the semi-finals (top 16) in their strong events.

“It’s a bigger meet and the times are pretty fast compared to previous editions, so it’s a good effort from her.

“She could have improve with a better start but it’s okay as she remains consistent with her performance curve especially in another corner of the world,” said Birmingham.

Tern Jian Han and Ian James Barr finished 18th (58.44) and 21st (58.81) respectively in the boys’ 100m backstroke.

Ian also did not perform strongly in the 200m individual medley, finishing 21st in 2:08.59.

Vernon Lee was placed 25th in the boys’ 200m (1:55.98) and 22nd in the 400m (4:04.63) freestyle races.

3rd FINA World Junior Swimming Championship 2011

RESULT
Vernon Lee -  400m Freestyle , 200m Freestyle
Tern Jian Han - 100m Backstroke

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.

3rd FINA World Junior Swimming Championship 2011

16 ~ 21 August 2011 Lima, Peru

(Click to link on Website)

Participants:
1. Vernon Lee Jeau Zhi       4 Commonwealth
2. Tern Jian Han                  4 Commonwealth