Signing off with style
Tze Liang-Yiwei end season with a silver medal in Japan
PETALING JAYA: Chew Yiwei-Ooi Tze Liang capped a delightful end to their diving season with a silver medal in the men’s 3m springboard synchro final at the Asian Swimming Championships in Tokyo, Japan.
Yiwei-Tze Liang chalked 372.81 points to earn the nation’s first-ever medal in the prestigious aquatic meet which takes place every four years.
China’s Huang Bowen-Xie Siyi won the six-dive competition with 404.37 points. Japan’s Araki YutoHasegawa Eiji took the bronze with 337.11 points.
Yiwei-Tze Liang were also silver medallists at the 2012 edition in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Yiwei could not be any happier with yesterday’s performance considering they have not been training as well as they wanted to.
“The preparations were far from the usual intensity and this is the 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.
“But this is our best performance. It’s nice to end the season this way,” said Yiwei, who will compete in the men’s 3m springboard individual today.
In the women’s 10m platform individual final, 2014 Youth Olympics silver medallist Loh Zhiayi finished fifth (257.35) ahead of team-mate Kimberly Bong Qian Ping (219.00).
China’s Si Yajie, the 2015 world champion and Rio Olympics silver medallist, won the event with 366.70 points.
In swimming, Rio Olympian Welson Sim finished fifth with 1:48.65, which is not far off his national record of 1:47.67 set earlier this year.
Former Olympic champion Park Tae-hwan of South Korea set a new meet record of 1:45.16 en route to the gold.
Caroline Chan erased Chan Kah Yan’s national record of 29.55 set at the 2011 SEA Games in Indonesia when she clocked the eighth fastest time of 29.51 in the women’s 50m backstroke.