Malaysian Record Holder Jinq En Phee Commits to Purdue

Jinq En Phee, Malaysian national record holder in the 50 and 100 meter breaststrokes, has committed to the Purdue Boilermakers. She’ll join the team as a freshman in the fall.

Jinq En has pushed Malaysian breaststroke to another level– before 2015, the national record sat at 1:09.82, and was done during the supersuit era. She first broke it with a 1:09.64 at the Dubai stop of the FINA World Cup in November, and has since taken it down to a 1:08.65 from the Malaysia Open this past May.

Because Malaysia had no other Olympic qualifiers during FINA’s qualifying period, and Jinq En was the only female swimmer in the country with a ‘B’ cut (she was less than a second off of the ‘A’ cut in the 100 breast), she’ll be swimming this event in Rio. You can read more about her Olympic berth on the Star Online, a Malaysian news site (in English).

Jinq En won the gold in the 100 breast at the 2015 SEA Games and also grabbed silver in the 50 breast. Recently, at the Monaco stop of the Mare Nostrum tour, she won the speed round of the 50 breast with a 31.66 to defeat Spain’s Marina Garcia after five rounds– she was first in every round, which started with 18 competitors, then down to 16, to 9, to 4, and then the final shoot-out between her and Garcia. She broke the national record with that 31.66.

This is a very timely arrival for Jinq En– Purdue just graduated their top breaststroker, Emily Fogle, who touched third in the 100 and 200 breaststrokes at the 2016 Big Ten Championships. Fogle also went on to score in both events at NCAAs, placing 8th in the 100 and 14th in the 200.

Jinq En is more of a sprinter, and with her converted times, she should easily take over as Purdue‘s top 100 breaststroker and a key to their medley relays. She would’ve made the Big Ten A final in the 100 breast with her converted time, and would’ve been on the bubble of the C final of the 200 breast.

Purdue hasn’t had a female swimmer at the Olympic Games since the 2000 Sydney Olympics.