State swimmers bag 9 gold at MSSM meet
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah swimmers bagged nine gold medals at the Malaysian Schools Sports Council (MSSM) Aquatic Championships in Melaka which concluded on Saturday.
Loo Yie Bing was the biggest contributor with her achievement of four gold medals, including a new record in the Girls Under-12 50m freestyle.
She clocked 28.67s to erase the previous record of 28.48s which was set back in 2003 by Sabah’s Leong Chii Lin.
To cap off her achievement, Yie Bing also bagged two awards, namely the Best Swimmer in the Under-12 Category and also the Best Overall Swimmer.
Samuel Ng Chong Cheng was the other contributor to Sabah’s gold medal haul. The youngster won five events and set a new record in the Boys U-12 50m freestyle (27.00s).
In addition to the nine gold medals, Sabah also bagged 12 silver and 10 bronze medals. One silver and one bronze came from diving events.
Sabah concluded the championships in fourth place overall, while Selangor emerged as champions with 27 gold medals, followed by Federal Territory in second place with 24 and Sarawak third with 10.
Meanwhile, Sabah Aquatic Sports Association technical chairman of development George Abun said he was happy with the achievements.
“A lot of our swimmers managed to improve their personal best times and I am impressed by their persistence, determination and discipline.
“We also improved our overall position from sixth last year to fourth, which is very good,” he said while thanking the coaches, especially Sean Goh, parents and team manager Godfrey Marcus.
George also thanked Ivan Chu and Christopher Yong from 7 SAMUDRA Sports Supplies & Services for their support.