Serian’s star splashes to six gold

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Hii Puong Wei gestures after winning the Boys 100m freestyle in a record time of 57.66s.

Hii Puong Wei gestures after winning the Boys 100m freestyle in a record time of 57.66s.

KUCHING: Hii Puong Wei of Serian Swimming Association stole the limelight on the first day of competition of the Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr Wong Soon Kai Inter-Club Swimming Championship at Sarawak Aquatics Centre, Petra Jaya yesterday.

He shattered three meet records en route to winning six gold medals in Boys Group 3 (11-12 years old) category.

Puong Wei, a form one student at SMK Batu Lintang, created his first new record in the 100m breaststroke by clocking 1:04.06 to bag his first gold of the day.

The old record of 1:07.20 was set by Ngu Jiung Wei of Sasa in 2011.

In his second event – the 50m breaststroke – Puong Wei improved his personal best of 34.28s to post 33.54s and clinch his second gold.

He broke the second record in the 100m freestyle with a new time of 57.66s, shredding 0.07s off the record set by Nee Gui Ping of Sasa (57.73s) in 2013.

Puong Wei’s fourth gold came from the 50m butterfly where he clocked 28.25s to beat 42 other competitors.

In the 100m breaststroke, Puong Wei outswam his rivals with the time of 1:49.26.

His third record was written in the 50m breaststroke when his 30.28s bettered the old record of 31.66s set by Nur Hariq Samil of MICIA in 2014.

Puong Wei is now the sure bet for the Best Boy award for his age group.

His teammate Jonas Lau Jiang Le was also among the record breakers yesterday.

Lau clocked 1:30.67 to win the gold in the Boys Group 5 100m backstroke to erase the old record of 1:34.72 set by Benjamin Hopkins of Kotas in 2014.

He went on to set his second record of the meet in the 50m backstroke with a time of 41.67s. The old mark of 42.63 was set by Eden Toh Bock Zien of Sasa in 2013.

Jonas Lau also won the golds in the 100m freestyle (1:17.33s) and 100m breaststroke (1:40.12s), silver in the 50m breaststroke (46.28s) and bronze in the 50m butterfly (40.83s).

Meanwhile, Sea Dragon Swimming Club from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah led the race for the overall team title with 383 points.

In second place is Sarawak Club with 322 points, followed by Penampang Swimming Association (306.5), Sibu Amateur Swimming Association (297.5) and Serian Amateur Swimming Association (239.5).

Twenty-two more events will be competed today and the closing ceremony will be graced by Minister of Local Government Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian.