Zun Jet fights fatigue to do well in swimming and water polo

PETALING JAYA: Competing in two events in a tournament can be daunting to some athletes, but swimmer Teo Zun Jet did well in both.

The 17-year-old Zun Jet participated in both swimming and water polo for Kuala Lumpur in the Malaysian Sports School Council (MSSM) competition, which ended on Wednesday at the Darul Ehsan Aquatic Centre in Selangor.

Zun Jet had a tiring experience as he participated in the SEA Age Group Championships in Jakarta, which concluded just a day before the MSSM took place, and he had to swim in the morning and then compete in water polo in the afternoon.

Despite all that, Zun Jet put up a decent showing to improve his personal best of 1:07.58 to 1:07.48 in the 100m breaststroke and brought home one gold in 4x100m freestyle relay, silver (200m breaststroke) and bronze (200m individual medley).

“It was really tiring but surprisingly, I managed to achieve a new personal best in 100m breaststroke to finish fourth, won bronze and silver in the 200m breaststroke and 200m individual medley respectively,” said Zun Jet.

“My teammates and I did a really great job in beating our strongest competitor Selangor to win gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay.

“It was a great moment for the four of us, our coach, parents, friends and supporters.”

As for water polo, Zun Jet and his team lost their spots in the gold medal after going down to Selangor in the semi-finals and had to settle for bronze after defeating Negri Sembilan in the third placing match.

Changing the pace of the game in the final has made the difference for them.

“We lost during the third quarter because I decided to play a slower game and the team listened to me as the captain,” said Zun Jet, who was named as the overall top scorer.

“I found out that we must play a fast-paced game after the quarter and my coach told me to change my plan.

“Luckily, we managed to gain one more goal to beat Negri Sembilan.

“We all make mistakes, but we want to win the bronze medal very badly so we tried our best and tried to change things in order to win.

“I was surprised with the overall top scorer award.

“I was happy because it had been a long time since Kuala Lumpur won a medal in this sport and this year, as the captain, I managed to bring my team together and win bronze.

“Without my teammates, the top scorer trophy wouldn’t be mine and the bronze medal wouldn’t be ours.

“I would like to thank all the coaches, friends and supporters who stayed back to watch me play.”