He’s done it again!
National swimmer Welson Sim is on a roll in Australia. The 21-year-old picked up his second gold medal after winning the men’s 200m freestyle Open final, beating Australian Rio Olympic 400m freestyle gold medallist Mack Horton – who finished third, at the
The decision to go for training attachment in Melbourne is paying off as Welson Sim once again upstaged the top Australian swimmers in their own backyard.
The 21-year-old Malaysian swimmer picked up his second gold medal after winning the men’s 200m freestyle Open final at the Victorian Open swimming championships in Melbourne yesterday.
Welson clocked 1:49.41 to deny Cameron McEvoy of Australia his second gold medal of the meet.
McEvoy, who won the 100m freestyle race on Friday, clocked 1:50.63.
He won silver in the 100m freestyle at the 2015 world championship and was part of the Australian relay freestyle team that earned bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Reigning Olympic 400m freestyle champion Mack Horton settled for bronze with 1:52.85.
Welson had made a big splash on Friday by beating Horton in his pet race.
Welson went into the 200m final as the fastest qualifier after clocking 1:49.84 in the morning. Welson was also in record breaking mode yesterday as he improved on his personal best time in the 800m freestyle.
Welson posted 8:09.77 to smash his own national record of 8:12.46 set at the Asian Games in Jakarta last year en route to taking bronze in the 800m freestyle final.
Horton won the gold with
8:05.96.
Welson will be delighted with his efforts as he is assured of competing in the World Aquatics Championships in Gwangju, South Korea in July after making the B qualifying cut for 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle events.
Welson is currently based at the Melbourne Vicente Swimming Club, where Horton also trains. His winning time in the 200m freestyle is not far from his national record of 1:47.36 and not bad considering that it is not a targeted meet.
“Making it to the Olympics again is my main target. I need to make the A cut for the Olympics to be assured a place and the world championships is the place to go for it,” said Welson, who is expecting to remain in Melbourne until end of April.