Singapore's Yeo spashes records with two golds
Singapore's Yeo spashes records with two golds
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (Agencies): Thailand, emerging as a
regional swimming power, shattered three Southeast Asian (SEA)
Games records Sunday as it captured four of the opening night's
gold medals.
But it was Singapore swimming star Joscelin Yeo who stole the
show by grabbing two golds in record time, setting the pace for
her quest for nine golds in the 20th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games
here.
Yeo, 20, shattered her own records in the 100-meter freestyle
and 200m individual medley events, in which she led all the way.
"I am very pleased with my performance, it's a good
beginning," said the University of California biology student who
has just recovered from an elbow injury sustained during weight-
training.
Yeo clocked 56.0 seconds in the 100m freestyle, breaking her
57.27 seconds in the 1993 games. She finished nearly two seconds
ahead of silver medalist Pilin Tachakittiran of Thailand.
Slightly more than an hour later, Yeo finished the 200m
individual medley in two minutes 17.17 seconds, shattering her
earlier mark of 2:17.48.
Yeo has grabbed 19 gold medals while anchoring her country's
challenge in the Southeast Asian Games for the past eight years.
At this year's games, she has also entered in the 50m, 200m
and 400m free events, 100m and 200m breaststroke, 100m butterfly
and 400m individual medley events.
She will also participate in two other relay events - 4x100
free and 4x100m medley.
"She has passed the first stage of the competition and I hope
she maintains her strength," said her U.S. coach Michael Walker.
But Yeo's strength was not enough to steer her nation to
victory in the 4X200m relay free style. They were edged out by
Thailand, which won in a record breaking time of 8:25.51 for the
gold.
"Joscelin should have gone faster," Singapore swimming coach
David Lim said.
Lim, who expressed disappointment at Singapore's performance,
added that "we're still very young."
In the men's relay, Singapore's team was disqualified after
its anchor swimmer took off too early.
Thailand won in 7:38.89, about two seconds faster than
Malaysia and ahead of its games record of 7:39.39.
Thailand's Ratapong Sirisanont, two-time gold medalist in the
last SEA Games, maintained his supremacy in the 400m individual
medley event by winning it in a record time of 4min 25.16secs. He
beat Indonesia's hopeful Albert Sutanto by three hundredths of a
second.
Albert said afterwards he was not disappointed with his
performance, which bested his own national record of 4:32.37.
Chonlathorn Vorathamrong won the women's 200m backstroke to
give Thailand another gold in 2:20.05, 1.52 seconds ahead of the
Philippines' Lizza Danila.
In the men's 200m backstroke event, Malaysia's Lim Keng Liat
staved off a flu and won the gold in 2:2.09.
"I was really feeling sick and I didn't want to take any
medicine because I may be pulled up for doping," said the record-
shattering Asian Games gold medalist in the 100m backstroke
event.
Apart from Albert's silver, Indonesia managed four bronzes
through Elsa Manora Nasution in the women's 200m breaststroke,
women's 4x200m freestyle relay and men's 4x200m freestyle relay
teams. Earlier in the day, Indah Eka Purnama won a bronze from
the pool after finishing third in the 3m springboard of diving
event.
But Indonesia could hope for golds on Monday through freestyle
specialist Richard Sam Bera and his 4x100m freestyle relay team.