HANGZHOU debutant Khiew Hoe Yean (pic) will be gearing up to make a splash in the men’s 400m freestyle event on the last day of the Asian Games swimming competition today.
To ensure the 21-year-old makes a strong assault in the event, he was left out of the Malaysian team’s starting line-up for the men’s 4x100m freestyle final at the Hangzhou Aquatics Sports Centre last night.
With the Cambodia SEA Games 200m freestyle gold medallist swimmer out, it was not surprising that the quartet of Arvin Shaun Singh, Jayden Tan, Bryan Leong and Lim Yin Chuen only placed eighth in the final with 3:24.78s.
Hoe Yean had swum the anchor leg behind Arvin, Bryan Leong and Yin Chuen in the morning to help the Malaysian team qualify for the final by placing seventh in the heats with 3:22.50s.
The sacrifice the swimmers made saw them failing to improve on the national record of 3:20.61 set by Arvin, Yin Chuen, Hoe Yean and Terence Ng at the Cambodia SEA Games in May.
“This is my first Asian Games and I will try my best to make one final at least,” said Hoe Yean who just missed out on the top eight final for the 200m freestyle after finishing ninth on Wednesday.
“There are many world class swimmers at the Asian Games and I will try to stay on their pace,” he said.
China, led by 19-year-old sprint sensation Pan Zhanle, set a new Asian record en route to taking gold in the 4x100m freestyle in 3:10.88 ahead of South Korea (3;12.96) and Japan (3:14.26).
Bryan Leong did not make the cut for the men’s 50m butterfly final after he clocked the 14th fastest time of 24.46s in the heats.
Hii Puong Wei placed 15th in the men’s 200m breaststroke heats in 2:21.36.
