Heidi reacts after winning the women’s 10 km Open Water Swimming. — Bernama photo
Kevin Yeap and Heidi Gan display their gold medals after winning the 10km Open Water Swimming in the men and women’s categories at the Putrajaya Watersports Complex. — Bernama photo
KUCHING: Sarawak-born Heidi Gan found little resistance as she dominated the SEA Games women’s 10km open water swim at Putrajaya Lake yesterday.
The gold medal winning time of 2hr 16:27sec. was but the latest show of her prowess in the event.
“I really want to win and dominate the race. I’m glad I managed to do so,” she was quoted by Bernama after the event often dubbed swimming’s marathon.
She beat out silver medalist B. Sruphanomthorn of Thailand by a comfortable 5-minute gap while Singapore’s Chantal Liew took the bronze in 2hr 21:30.
It was the third SEA Games gold medal for the 29-year-old who won her first two in the 5km and 10km races at the 2011 edition in Indonesia.
Open water swimming was not featured in the 2013 and 2015 SEA Games.
Compared with diving diva Pandelela Rinong and swim star Welson Sim not many know that Heidi is actually from Sarawak.
She first represented the state in swimming at Sukma more than 10 years ago.
She also made it to the national swimming team and competed in the 2007 and 2009 SEA Games.
She switched to open water swimming when she studied in Australia.
Now based in Perth amidst a highly competitive environment for the new sports event, the law graduate has emerged as the undisputed queen of open water swimming in the region.
She represented Malaysia at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Games based on her own merit after surpassing sanctioned Olympic qualifying standards.
Competing against world-class competitors in Rio, she finished 21st in the 10km race in 1hr 59:07.9s, less than 3 minutes behind the Olympic champion.
She decided to give last month’s World Aquatics Championships in Budapest, Hungary a miss in preparation for the SEA Games.
Instead she chose to focus on her closing speed and went for a training stint in Swedan.
Early signs of her progress came when she beat all rivals in the continent by winning the 10km race in the Asia Open Water Championships three months ago.
Heidi, whose family is in Kuala Lumpur to support her, is not finished yet for the 29th SEA Games.
She is also entered as a member of the national relay squad for the 4×100 and 4x200m freestyle.
Talking to reporters yesterday, she might well have summed up her mantra in her own words: ‘if you work hard, you can do it.”
Meanwhile, Kevin Yeap made it a golden double for Malaysia when the ex-national distance swimmer won the men’s race in 2hr 03:18.