Medal slips away for Cheng Feng at Dakar Youth Olympics

PETALING JAYA: Swimmer Loo Cheng Feng narrowly missed out on winning a historic medal for Malaysia at the Youth Olympics in Dakar, Senegal.

The 15-year-old just missed out on a podium for the boys’ 50m freestyle event after clocking 23.25s to finish fourth in the final yesterday.

Zdenek Prochaza of Czech Republic took the gold in 22.54s ahead of Trinidad and Tobago swimmer Jaden Mills (22.99s).

Andrew Marcus got the bronze for Cyprus with 23.04s. Cheng Feng had swum the third fastest time (23.40s) in the heats earlier. He just missed out on making the 100m freestyle final on Tuesday after placing ninth (51.65s in the heats).

Cheng Feng, who is from Penang, is one of the swimmers to watch out for in the sprint events in the future.

He won the gold in the 100m freestyle and silver in the 50m freestyle behind Thailand SEA Games bronze medallist and teammate Tong Yu Jing at the Malaysia Games in Selangor in July.

In wushu, Lim Kai Shen also narrowly missed out on a podium finish after finishing fourth in the boys’ taijiquan combined event.

In the final, Kai Shen scored 9.263 points in taijiquan and 9.320 points in taijishan for a combined score of 18.583 points, just 0.08 points short from the bronze medallist Shiki Kawamura of Japan (18.663).

Hong Kong’s Poon Hao Ran took gold with 18.720 points while Nguyen Khac Le Hoang got the silver for Vietnam with 18.692.