Swimming: Hoe Yan splashes his way to 200m freestyle gold

HANOI: With three silver medals under his belt, young national swimmer Khiew Hoe Yean finally clinched the gold medal when he won the men's 200-metre (m) freestyle final at the My Dinh Aquatic Centre here today.

The Kuala Lumpur-born swimmer clocked 1 minute and 47.81 seconds (s) as Singapore's Quah Zheng Wen (1:48.20s) took silver and Vietnam's Hoang Quy Phuoc (1:49.35s) settled for bronze.

Another national swimmer, Welson Sim clocked 1:50.63s to end up in sixth spot.

This is Hoe Yean's first SEA Games gold medal after nearly pulling off a surprise win in the men's 200m backstroke event on Monday (May 16), where he was pipped to the gold medal by Vietnam's Nguyen Tran Hung.

Hoe Yean's three silver medals in Hanoi came in the men's 400m freestyle, 200m backstroke and 4x200m freestyle relay.

In the 4x200m freestyle relay yesterday, he and three others - Welson, Lim Yin Chuen and Arvin Shaun Singh Chahal - managed to set a new national record of 7:19.75s.

The swimming competition at the 31st SEA Games here will end tomorrow and the national swimmers have, so far, bagged one gold, three silvers through Hoe Yean and one bronze, courtesy of Job Tan in the men's 200m breaststroke.

-- BERNAMA