KUALA LUMPUR: James Wong broke a 12-year-old record on day three of the para swimming meet at the Asean Para Games, winning the gold medal in the men’s 100m butterfly S8 at the National Aquatics Centre in Bukit Jalil.
James, who was born with one arm, broke the 2005 record set (one-minute 30.23s) by Malaysia’s Kulek DW when he clocked a time of one-minute 12.94s, to win ahead of Filipino Ernie Agat Gawilan (one-minute 19.86s) and Vietnam’s Nguyen Quang Vuong (one-minute 23.63s) who finished in second and third, respectively.
Malaysia’s saw another gold medal through Fraidden Dawan, who also smashed his own record of four-minutes 55.99s (set at the 2015 Asean Para Games in Singapore) when he recorded his swim at four-minutes 48.35s to win in the men’s 400m freestyle S10.
Fraidden dedicated his win to his one-year-old daughter Evangeline Mariansha, as he outswam Indonesian Steven Sualang (five-minutes 01.59s) and Thailand’s Punsiri Suphat (five-minutes 20.37) in second and third, respectively.
Aside from the two-gold medal, Malaysia also received two silver medals.
Julius Jaranding completed his three-silver medal haul when he collected the last in his final event at the Asean Para Games, the men’s 100m breaststroke SB13.
Julius, 31, was just 05.94s behind Indonesia’s Marinus Melianus Yowei, who also set a new Games record at one-minute 14.57s after breaking his old record of one-minute 14.79s set in Singapore, two-years ago.
Previously, Julius, who suffers from visual impairment since the age of nine due to a high fever, has won two-silver medals in the men’s 50m breaststroke SB13 and 100m freestyle S12.
The next silver medal was delivered by the contingent’s men’s 4x100m freestyle S14 relay team that consisted of 2017 gold medallists Anas Zul Amirul Sidi Abdullah and Yoong Chung Wei, 2017 bronze medallist Mohd Adib Iqbal Abdullah and Jin Ping Ting.
The quartet finished their swim at four-minutes 06.51s to finish in second behind Indonesia’s Daniel Nugroho, Irfan Septiana, Kevin Ode Natama and Muhammad Bejita with a time of four-minutes 01.97s.
The same category saw Thailand win the bronze medal after finishing their swim at four-minutes 29.87s.
Adib made it two bronze medals after he came in third in the men’s 100m breaststroke SB14 category (one-minute 17.26s) which saw Indonesian Muhammad Samsi create a new Game record at one-minute 16.26s and his compatriot Irfan finishing in second.
This means Malaysia’s tally in para swimming stands at five gold, eight silver and six bronze medals, just five shy of the 10 gold medals target as reported.
Para swimming continues tomorrow where 22 gold medals are up for grabs.