Sarawakian Welson Sim Breaks Daniel Bego’s Eight-year-old 200m Record

Beaming with joy: A happy Welson Sim Wee Shang of Sarawak after winning the gold and breaking the meet record in the Boys 16-18 200m freestyle in Shah Alam Monday. —ART CHEN/The Star

SHAH ALAM: Sarawakian Welson Sim was on cloud nine after breaking his idol’s eight -year-old meet record in the MSSM (national schools) swimming championships at the Shah Alam Aquatic Centre yesterday.

His idol is none other than multiple SEA Games gold medallist Daniel Bego.

And yesterday, Welson looks set to follow in the footsteps of the better known Sarawakian after clocking 1:55.74 in the boy’s 16-18 200m freestyle race to erase Daniel’s record of 1:56.83 set in 2005.

Welson made a strong splash on the first day of the national schools meet considering he only moved up to the 16-18 age-group category this year, But still, he was not that pleased with his effort.

“I felt I could have done better as this is my favourite discipline. I was confident of breaking the meet record as I had swam a personal best of 1:55.00. That’s why I felt I could have done better,” said Welson, who also smashed Daniel’s long-time records in the 13-15 age-group category in the national schools meet in Kota Kinabalu last year.

He now trains together at the same pool with his fellow Sarawakian after accepting a call-up to join the full-time national swimming squad based at Bukit Jalil under Australian coach Paul Birmingham.

Welson was not the only record breaker. Selangor duo Yap Siew Hui and Benny Ng set new records in girls’ 13-15 50m butterfly and boy’s 16-18 50m breaststroke respectively.

Siew Hui clocked 28.40 to erase the previous mark of 29.48 set by Heidi Loo in 2009 and it turned out to be a personal best for her.

“It is better than the time I set when I took gold for Selangor at last year’s Sukma in Kuantan,” said Siew Hui, who took her second gold in the 200m freestyle and a silver in 100m backstroke.

Benny posted 30.14 to better last year’s winning mark of 30.62 belonging to Shaun Yap in the boy’s 16-18 50m breaststroke race.