SHAH ALAM: A tireless Eliza Tan still has enough power in her tank to blast a long-standing record on the fifth and final day of swimming as Selangor wrapped up their campaign in style by becoming overall champions in the pool at Akuatik Selangor.
The 19-year-old continued with her record breaking form by winning the girls' 50m freestyle race in 26.44s, thus wiping off the meet record of 26.50s set by former SEA Games gold medallist Leung Chii Lin for Sabah 18 years ago.
Eliza thus completed a remarkable clean sweep of the sprint freestyle events, having also won the 100m and 200m freestyle events earlier in the week.
Her victory in the 100m freestyle was more memorable as it came with a new national record mark of 56.78s.
And her final and seventh gold medal came in the 4x100m medley event.
Eliza swam the freestyle leg as the team, also comprising Rainne Foo, Khoo Sue Enn and Shannon Tan, touched home first in 4:18.87s, breaking the previous Games record of 4:19.79s.
"I'm really, really happy with how I performed in my first Sukma. I won all my individual events in personal best times," said Eliza, who is the favourite to claim the Best Sportsgirl Award.
Eliza is hoping to make it to the national team for the Malaysia SEA Games after her breakthrough performance.
"I talked to the national coach (Michael Kinross) and he mentioned that I am in the plan, so hopefully I can make it to the Malaysian team soon.
"I'll keep training and working hard to improve myself," said Eliza.
Selangor finished second behind Federal Territories (FT) two years but turned the tables on their rivals this time with a total of 20-7-11.
The contributions by the swimming team helped the hosts to became Sukma overall champions again after 10 years.
FT were left trailing in second place in the swimming tally with 13-6-7.
It was a record breaking final day in the pool as SEA Games bronze medallist Tong Yu Jing became the first boy to dip under 23 seconds. The Penang swimmer posted 22.83s in retaining his 50m freestyle title, smashing his own Sukma record of 23.06s set two years ago.
Kelly Yao Teo gave Sarawak their one and only gold medal in swimming when she won the girls' 1,500m freestyle race in 17:55.82s, breaking her own Games record of 17:56.21s set two years ago.
Chong Xin Lin also bettered her own Games record in making a clean sweep of the girls' backstroke titles.
The FT swimmer, who already won the 50m and 200m backstroke events earlier, posted 1:03.70s in the 100m to erase her previous record of 1:04.06s set when she won the event in Sarawak.
