Surprise silver from men’s duo

CHEW Yiwei-Ooi Tze Liang clinched the men’s 3-metre springboard synchro silver medal at the Asian Swimming Championships in Tokyo yesterday.

The Malaysian duo, after six dives, recorded 372.81 points to finish behind China’s Huang Bowen-Xie Siyi on 404.37.

Japan’s Araki Yuto-Hasegawa Eiji settled for the bronze medal on 337.11 points.

The silver medal was Malaysia’s first in this year’s competition. Yiwei-Tze Liang were also silver medallists at the previous edition in 2012.

Yiwei, when contacted, said: “The preparations this year have not been as intense and this is our third straight competition in five weeks.

“We took part in the Malaysian and Australian legs of the Fina Diving Grand Prix in Kuching and Gold Coast last month.

“This, however, is our best performance and it’s a great way to end our season, said Yiwei who will take to the pool today for the men’s 3m springboard.

In the women’s 10m platform individual final, Loh Zhiayi only managed to finish fifth after scoring 257.35 points ahead of teammate Kimberly Bong (219.00).

Rio Olympic Games silver medallist Si Yajie of China won gold on 366.70 points.

In swimming, Welson Sim finished fifth in the men’s 200m freestyle, after being the only Malaysian to reach the top-eight final.

Welson, who is also the national record holder, clocked one minute 48.65 seconds. South Korea’s Park Tae Hwan set a meet record of 1:45.16s to clinch the gold medal.

Despite failing to reach the final, Sea Games gold medallist Wong Fu Kang improved on his national record after clocking 28.59s in the men’s 50m breaststroke heats.

Caroline Chan erased Chan Kah Yan’s five-year-old national record in the women’s 50m backstroke when she clocked 29.51s. By Fabian Peter