Malaysia miss final after swimmers fall short in the pool

On track: Bryan Leong posted his personal best in Heat 5 of the 50m butterfly event.

MALAYSIA made no splash on the penultimate day of the swimming competition at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games as the men’s 4x100m freestyle team fell short of making the final in Japan yesterday.

The quartet of Khiew Hoe Yean, Arvin Shaun Singh, Ananda Lim Yin Chuen, and Goh Li Jie finished fifth in Heat 1 with a time of 3:22.67s at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

The time saw them finish 10th overall, just two spots shy of making the final.

South Korea topped Heat 1 with 3:19.55s, followed by Thailand (3:20.07) and Saudi Arabia (3:20.81).

Hoe Yean will compete in the 400m freestyle heats today, while Li Jie will swim in the 200m butterfly heats.

The Malaysian squad’s time was also short of their national record of 3:20.61s they set at the Bangkok SEA Games last December.

Meanwhile, Bryan Leong put on a season-best performance in the men’s 50m butterfly event after clocking 24.67s to finish seventh in Heat 5.

Bryan, who holds the national record of 24.08s set last year, clocked 24.99s in May at the AP Race London International for his previous season’s best.

In the men’s 800m freestyle event, Dhuha Zulfikry finished 14th overall after clocking 8:13.30s in final B as China’s Zhang Zhanshuo won with 7:42.49s.

Jayden Tan Khai Xin and Andrew Goh also missed the mark to make the men’s 200m breaststroke final after Andrew clocked 2:21.77s to finish fifth in Heat 1 while Jayden came in last in Heat 3 with 2:23.28s.

Andrew will have one last event in the 50m breaststroke heats today, while Khai Xin competes in the 200m butterfly heats.