Rising star Khiew Hoe Yean has dominated the pools in Malaysia. Now the challenge is for him to shine at the Hanoi Sea Games from May 12-23.
The 19-year-old has been making waves locally over the past two years, even outshining two-time Olympian Welson Sim along the way.
And while Welson is seen to be on the decline, the Kuala Lumpur-born Hoe Yean, at such a young age, is already a holder of three national records: 800m freestyle, 200m backstroke and 400m individual medley.
His 200m backstroke record is the most impressive one, as he clocked 2:00.08 to smash Alex Lim's previous mark of 2:00.94 set at the Asian Games in 1998.
Hoe Yean has also proven himself to be the new power in the freestyle — once the domain of Welson — sweeping four gold medals — 100m, 200m, 400m and 1500m — at last week's Malaysian Open.
And now the stage is set for Hoe Yean to spearhead the 14-member Malaysian swimming team at the Hanoi Sea Games. He will have to take on formidable rivals from Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand.
At the age of 17, Hoe Yean made his debut in the 2019 Sea Games, winning two bronze: in the 200m backstroke and 2x200m freestyle.
Hoe Yean is only one of three Malaysian swimmers (with Welson and Phee Jinq En) selected for the games under category A. The other 11 swimmers going under category B are Jayden Tan, Job Tan, Ananda Lim, Hii Puong Wei, Arvin Shaun Singh Chalal, Ng Jing Fu, Sebastian Soon, Lau Zheng Yong, Bryan Leong (men), Alicia Li Ann Soosai and Goh Chia Tong. Under category B, the national association will fund their expenses but are reimbursed by the National Sports Council if they win a medal.
Yesterday, Malaysian Swimming (MS) also announced the full list of divers for the Sea Games. Leading the team will be two-time Olympic medallist Pandelela Rinong, and she will be joined by Nur Dhabitah Sabri, Wendy Ng, Ong Ker Ying and Kimberly Bong.
The male divers are Chew Yiwei, Ooi Tze Liang, Syafiq Puteh, Jellson Jabillin, Hanis Nazirul Jaya Surya, Enrique MacCartney Harold and Bertrand Rhodict.
Pandelela is set to partner Dhabitah in the women's 10m platform synchro especially with the latter having expressed an intention to return to platform diving.
"For diving, it is our gold mine and we would love to defend our gold medals," said MS secretary-general Mae Chen.
"But we have some new combinations, especially for the 10m synchro events, so we will gauge their progress as the dates draw closer.
"As for swimming, we really just want to do better than what we achieved at the 2019 Sea Games."
At the 2019 edition in the Philippines, Malaysia swept all four gold medals in diving. Malaysia also collected two gold from swimming through Jinq En.
SEA GAMES AQUATICS SQUAD
DIVING — Men: Chew Yiwei, Ooi Tze Liang, Syafiq Puteh, Jellson Jabillin, Hanis Nazirul Jaya Surya, Enrique MacCartney Harold and Bertrand Rhodict
Women: Pandelela Rinong, Nur Dhabitah Sabri, Wendy Ng, Ong Ker Ying, Kimberly Bong
SWIMMING — Men: Khiew Hoe Yean, Welson Sim, Jayden Tan, Job Tan, Ananda Lim, Hii Puong Wei, Arvin Shaun Singh Chalal, Ng Jing Fu, Sebastian Soon, Lau Zheng Yong, Bryan Leong.
Women: Phee Jinq En, Alicia Li Ann Soosai, Goh Chia Tong.
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