Promising swimmer set to earn place in SEA Games

By LIM TEIK HUAT

SEREMBAN: Top swimmers Daniel Bego and Khoo Cai Lin continued to hold the fort but the just concluded Malaysian Open championships will also be remembered as the stage where the young Christina Loh stood out.

Despite not being in the national swimming programme yet, Christina certainly staked claim to be considered in the team for the Laos SEA Games in December.

The 13-year-old, who represented Kuala Lumpur, completed a sweep of all three breaststroke events in her first competition at the senior level to mark another milestone in her fledging swimming career.

In the 50m breaststroke, she beat Beijing Olympian Leung Chii Lin and she posted a personal best in the 200m race.

In the 100m breaststroke, Christina finished outside the SEA Games qualifying mark of 1:12.65 but her 1:14.70 was enough to claim the gold medal.

Christina splashed to a personal best of 1:13.90 in the national schools (MSSM) meet in Shah Alam in March and went on to take the outstanding swimmer award as well.

Although she did not beat the SEA Games qualifying mark, the Amateur Swimming Union of Malaysia (Asum) secretary, Edwin Chong, said that Christina deserved to be recommended for inclusion in the SEA Games squad.

“Christina is focusing only on the breaststroke at the moment but for her age, she is doing very good times,” he said.

“She is currently the number two national breaststroke swimmer after Siow Yi Ting. Considering that Yi Ting is much older, Christina has a promising future ahead and we should expose her in the SEA Games. She will definitely go faster as she gets older and become stronger physically.”

The 23-year-old Yi Ting is currently based in the United States and she holds the national record for the 50m, 100m, 200m breaststroke and 200m individual medley.

Christina, who has made the A qualifying mark for the inaugural Asian Youth Games in Singapore, said that she did not target to peak in the Malaysian Open.

“I hope to maintain my times when I compete in the South-East Asia championships in Bukit Jalil early next month,” said Christina, who currently trains under KL coach He Jinglan.

“My main focus will be to bring down my times when I swim in the Asian Youth Games in July. I do not know whether I can go near the SEA Games qualifying mark (the silver medal-winning effort at the previous Games in Korat in 2007). But I will give it a shot.”