SHAH ALAM: Sarawak’s Welson Sim continued his record-breaking act en route to winning his third gold medal in the MSSM (national schools) swimming championships at the Darul Ehsan Aquatic Centre.
The 17-year-old broke his own meet record of 52.94 in the boys’ 16-18 100m freestyle, clocking 51.88 on Wednesday.
Penang’s Alwyn Tan also managed to dip below the record with his time of 52.21 to clinch the silver. Yeap Zheng Yang of Selangor took the bronze in 53.08.
On Monday, the opening day, Welson raced to a new record in the 200m freestyle. The next day he shattered the 1,500m freestyle Open record by more than 10 seconds.
Welson, who moved his base to Bukit Jalil last year, is hoping to rake in more golds over the next two days of competition.
“The 100m freestyle is not my strongest event as I am a middle and long distance swimmer. So, I am happy to deliver the gold for Sarawak.
“I am, however, swimming a lot faster since joining the national team under Paul Birmingham a year ago.
“I still have the 400m freestyle and I hope to break that record too,” said Welson, who helped Malaysia win a silver in the 4x200m freestyle relay in his SEA Games debut in Myanmar last year.
There was more joy for Sarawak as Adrian Chua managed to smash the five-year-old boys’ 12 and under 100m freestyle record. He clocked 59.27 to dip under Tang Chong Heng’s mark of 1:00.27, set in 2009.
Defending champions Selangor are still heading the medal tally with a 20-13-11 haul with Kuala Lumpur trailing second on 16-19-8.