SINGAPORE: Welson Sim strutted down to the deck, took off his jacket and splashed water on his chest.
Then it was all systems go as the fresh-faced 18-year-old put up a record-breaking performance in the 400m freestyle to claim his first SEA Games swimming gold medal at the OCBC Aquatic Centre.
Vietnam's Hoang Quy Phuoc, winner of the 200m freestyle five days ago, led in the first 50m metres but he faded away after that.
Welson took over and stayed the course over the next seven laps to post a new SEA Games record of 3:53.97.
Daniel Bego, who held the old record of 3:53.99 set in Laos in 2009, settled for fourth, behind Pang Sheng Jun of Singapore, who claimed the bronze in 3:57.60.
Jessie Lacuna of the Philippines got the silver in 3:55.34.
Welson had no time to celebrate as he had to anchor the 4x100m medley relay team, which finished fourth.
Still catching his breath later, Welson said the win had not sunk in yet.
"I came here aiming to get a gold medal and I did it. I did not expect it to be easy and surely did not expect it to be a new Games record and close to my personal best of 3:53.93," said Welson, who also bagged two silvers in the freestyle relays and a bronze in the 200m freestyle individual earlier in the week.
Johor teenager Wong Fu Kang was too slow off the blocks and it spoiled his hopes of claiming a double in the men's breaststroke.
The 16-year-old clocked 28.67 for the bronze in the 50m breaststroke, won by title holder Indra Gunawan, who posted 28.27 to give Indonesia its first swimming gold medal here.
The consolation for Fu Kang is he is the new national record holder, improving on the 28.69 set by Shaun Yap last year.
Chui Lai Kwan improved on her own national record of 26.00 set at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games last year after she finished fourth in the women's 50m freestyle in 25.82.
Christina Loh ended her miserable campaign in Singapore as she fizzled out after the half-way mark in the women's 200m breaststroke. Christina, who won a double in the 100m and 200m in Myanmar two years ago, finished fourth in 2:36.57.
She was fifth in the 100m race on Monday.
Malaysia ended the six-day swimming competition with a 3-4-4 medal tally, to emerge third overall, behind Singapore (23-12-7) and Vietnam (10-2-4).
It is the first time since Jakarta in 1997 that Malaysia’s swimmers have failed to haul in four golds.
Irfan had no problems retaining the gold with a hurl of 56.62m. - S. S KANESAN / The Star
Nineteen-year-old Mohd Irfan Shamsuddin, the discus thrower with a pony tail and a perpetual smile on his face, had no problems retaining the gold with a hurl of 56.62m.
Nauraj Singh Randhawa, feeling the strain of having to defend his title in the men’s high jump event – and having just recovered from a foot injury more than a week ago - can thank his lucky stars for taking home the gold. He was tied at 2.13m with Vietnam’s Dao Van Thuy after both failed to clear the 2.15m height.
The 23-year-old Malaysian was awarded the gold on countback.
His effort, however, was way off his personal best of 2.22m done at the Canberra Open in March.
Nauraj was just relieved to have not let the nation down.
“I was feeling the pressure even before the competition because of my foot injury,” said Nauraj.
“But the pressure was on me after I failed to clear 2.15m. The Vietnamese and I were tied at 2.13m and I’m very lucky to retain the gold on countback.”
Debutant Mohd Ashraf Saipu Rahmat did well to win the bronze in the men’s high jump by clearing 2.11m.
Irfan, who holds the national record of 58.04m in men’s discus was far from pleased with his performance too.
“I came here to break the SEA Games record (of 59.50m set by Singapore’s James Wong in the 1999 Brunei SEA Games).
“But I only managed 56.62m,” said Irfan, who will be competing in the World University Games in Gwangju from July 3-14.
Malaysia also won one silver and a bronze on the third day of the athletics competition.
Rayzam Shah Wan Sofian finished second for the third consecutive time in the men’s 110m hurdles with a season’s best of 13.97.
Malaysia quartet of Nurul Faizah Asma Mazalan, Fathin Faqihah Mohd Yusuf, Zaimah Atifah Zainuddin and Shereen Samson Vallabouy clocked the season’s best of 3:39.10 to take the bronze in the women’s 4x400m relay.
SINGAPORE: “Burger! Burger! Burger!” It was the calls for burger that helped shooter Alia Sazana Azahari end Malaysia’s gold drought on the sixth day of the shooting competition which started last week.
Her team-mates’ vocal support kept Alia on track to win the women’s 25m pistol gold event at the National Shooting Centre.
The 23-year-old Alia went through two nerve-racking shoot-outs in the semi-finals before routing host Singapore's Teh Xiu Hong 7-1 in the final.
The bubbly Alia, who had made a burger wager with her good friend, Thai shooter Tanyaporn Prucksakorn, said the cheer of “burger” calmed her nerves.
In addition to the burger wager, the Terengganu local had also promised her team-mates that she would buy them all burgers if she won the gold medal.
"I was moved by the support from my team-mates and the cheer of ‘burger’ lightened the pressure," said Alia.
"It was a tough fight for me to win the medal and there was pressure to win the gold. I had to dig deep before qualifying for the final but it paid off with the gold medal.
"As for the burger treat from Tanyaporn, I have yet to decide on where to have it ... it’s the same with my team-mates. We’ll decide on it soon.”
Malaysia could only muster five silver and five bronze medals before Alia gunned down the gold.
Tanyaporn said she's happy for her good friend’s success and is ready to keep her end of the bet.
Meanwhile, in the men's 50m pistol event, Johnathan Wong won the bronze medal with a score of 165.3 points.
Vietnam's Hoang Xuan Vinh shot down the gold with a score of 190.9 points to edge Thailand's Natphanlert Auapinyakul, who claimed the silver with 186 points.
