62nd MILO/PRAM Malaysia Open Swimming Championships
- April 25th – 28th, 2019
- National Aquatic Centre, KL Sports City, Bukit Jalil
- LCM
- Results
Several meet records and even a few national records went down over the course of the 4-day Malaysia Open Swimming Championships that just wrapped up yesterday in Bukit Jalil. Among the winners was Malaysian swimming stalwart Welson Sim, as the 22-year-old SEA Games gold medalist stood atop the podium 3 times.
First, Sim fired off a new meet record in the men’s 400m freestyle, clocking a time of 3:50.32 en route to gold. That time was just off the 3:49.29 he logged at the NSW Championships in Australia last month that sits as the Malaysian national record in the event. Both outings dip under the 3:56.14 FINA B standard needed for this summer’s World Championships in Gwangju, Korea.
Sim’s next victim was the 200m free, where he logged a monster time of 1:47.48 to win by over 7 seconds. Splitting 52.21/55.27, Sim’s gold medal-garnering effort here fell just .08 shy of his own 1:47.36 national record he produced 2 years ago. His time here falls just .08 outside the 1:47.40 FINA A cut for Gwangju, but sits very comfortably inside the 1:51.16 B marker.
Finally, Sim eclipsed the Malaysian 100m freestyle national record en route to his 3rd gold. The freestyle ace logged a field-leading mark of 49.54 in the prelims to produce a new record. He ultimately won the A-Final in a slightly slower 49.83, but still represented the only swimmer of the field to dip under 50 seconds in the race. He needed 50.51 to hit the FINA B standard for Gwangju, so Sim nailed that in spades.
But Sim wasn’t the only one to establish new meet records across the Championships. S.P. Likith of India set a lifetime best in the men’s 100m breaststroke, hitting the wall in 1:02.02. That earned a new meet record, but also dipped under the FINA B cut in the event. With no other Indian swimmer having accomplished the feat, Likith, will most likely get the opportunity to represent India at the World Championships.
Backstroke ace Srihari Natraj, also of India, swept the men’s backstroke events to collect FINA B standards across all. He earned the 50m back win in a mark of 25.84, while also winning the 100m back in 55.49 and 200m back in 2:02.68. The 200m back scored a new meet record for the 18-year-old, while the 50m and 100m marks earned new Indian national records.
Ng Jing Fu collected a Malaysian national record in the men’s 100m breast, clocking an effort of 1:02.34 behind the aforementioned Likith, while Sajan Prakash took down the meet record in the men’s 200m fly with his winning mark of 1:58.03.
