KUALA LUMPUR: Khiew Hoe Yean's hopes of setting a new national mark in the men's 400m freestyle event did not materialise at the Paris Olympics today.
The national swimmer, who was making his Olympic debut, placed fourth from eight swimmers in his heat after clocking three minutes and 51.66 seconds in the preliminaries at the Paris La Defense Arena.
The time, however, was well off his own national record of 3:48.36s which he had set at the Australian Championships in April.
Hoe Yean's time placed him 27th overall from 37 swimmers that competed in the event. Only the top-eight advanced to the final which will be held tomorrow.
Germany's Lukas Maertens topped the qualifying timesheets on 3:44.13s. Brazil's Guilherme Costa (3:44.23s) and China's Fei Liwei (3:44.60s) rounded out the top-three.
National swimming coach Eric Anderson said Hoe Yean made a good start to the race but could not maintain his momentum.
"Tough race. Great swimming to the 200m mark but was not able to sustain the speed on the back end of the race," said Anderson.
"Many factors at play at the Olympic Games — it's a high stress environment. A more in depth conversation with him required to really drill down into all relevant factors."
Hoe Yean's teammate Tan Rouxin will take to the pool for the women's 100m breaststroke preliminaries tomorrow.
Rouxin and Hoe Yean had both received universality places for the Paris Games.