More women than men for Olympics

By LIM TEIK HUAT

KUALA LUMPUR: Girl power surged to the fore in the just concluded Malaysian Open swimming championships at National Aquatic Centre in Bukit Jalil.

For the first time, there will be more women than men in the squad for an Olympic Games.

All alone: Daniel Bego is the sole male swimmer heading to Beijing.

On Sunday, Leung Chii Lin earned a spot in the Beijing Olympics in style by setting a national record in the 50m freestyle. The 17-year-old Sabahan became the fifth swimmer to make it to the Games in August after Daniel Bego, Khoo Cai Lin, Siow Yi Ting and Lew Yih Wey.

Yih Wey earned a debut appearance in the Olympics in the same championships. The 18-year-old Negri Sembilan lass broke a five-year-old national record held by Yi Ting since 2003 in the women's 400m individual medley.

And she emerged as the biggest winner in the Malaysian Open with five gold medals, four of them in record times.

Sarawakian Daniel will be the only male swimmer in the Malaysian contingent for the Olympics.

In the Athens Games four years ago, Yi Ting was the only female among the four swimmers in the team, which also comprised Lim Keng Liat, Saw Yi Khy and Allen Ong.

This time around, the female swimmers first got themselves noticed in the SEA Games last December. Debutants like Cai Lin, Yih Wey and another Sabahan, Chui Lai Kwan, emerged with gold medal performances.

The women contributed five of the seven gold medals earned by Malaysia in the Korat Games.

Former top backstroker Keng Liat, who is Malaysia's most successful swimmer to date, said that it was quite disappointing that Daniel was the only male swimmer to make the grade to Beijing.

“The standard of swimming worldwide has gone up a lot since the last Olympics in Athens. Many of the world records have been rewritten and the current Olympic qualifying times have gone up,” said the three-time Olympian, who quit competitive swimming after the 2006 Doha Asian Games.

“I'm a bit sad to see that our men, except Daniel, have not caught up. It's the women who have improved a lot and they are the ones who we will depend on for the bulk of the medals in the SEA Games (in Laos next year).”

And barely a year after going into coaching, Keng Liat can lay claim to having produced an Olympian in Chii Lin to follow in his footsteps.

Marellyn Liew was another swimmer earmarked for qualification but she just missed out on the 100m butterfly, a day after dipping under the 28-second barrier to set a national record of 27.45 in the 50m butterfly.

Daniel and Cai Lin also indicated that they are shaping up well for good performances in their debut Olympics by setting national records in the Malaysian Open. Both swimmers reaffirmed their Olympic spots in the respective events they have qualified for earlier last year.

Daniel lowered his national mark in the 200m freestyle and set meet records in three of the four events he won. He missed out qualifying for a fourth event in the Olympics – in the 400m freestyle by 0.72 seconds.

“I'm happy to have shown improvement in all my strong events. I'm came close to qualifying for the 400m freestyle. But I'm not too disappointed because I have not swam the event for some time,” said Daniel.

Cai Lin found joy in breaking Nurul Huda Abdullah's 20-year-old national record in the women's 200m freestlye besides beating the Olympic qualifying mark again in the 400m freestyle.

Star