SEA MEET: Wins 400m freestyle gold but fails to clock Olympic time
KEVIN Yeap won the 400m freestyle to become the first local male gold medallist at the Southeast Asian Championships in Singapore on Friday.
He recorded his personal best of 3:45.19, just 0.06 seconds short of meeting a second Olympic invitational qualifying mark.
Compatriot Vernon Lee finished second in 4:00.40 followed by Singapore's Kevin Matthews (4:01.55).
Kevin has been dominating the event since he won gold at last year's Indonesia Sea Games followed by a victory at the Malaysian Open in Bukit Jalil in May.
The 22-year-old had met the Olympic invitational time for the 1,500m freestyle at the Singapore Age-Group meet in March and has a chance to improve on his personal best time today.
He has an excellent chance of qualifying for his first Olympics in London as the field of qualifiers is not as big for long distance events.
"Kevin is one of the few swimmers in contention for Olympic spots. We are expecting two or three swimmers to qualify under invitational timing," said Amateur Swimming Union of Malaysia (ASUM) secretary Edwin Chong yesterday.
Khoo Cai Lin, meanwhile, won her second title after taking gold in the women's 800m freestyle but she failed to better her Olympic invitational time of 8:48.55 after clocking 8:52.45.
Indonesia's Raina Saumi took silver in 9:00.47 while the bronze went to Thailand's Benjaporn Sriphanomthron (9:11.46).
Malaysia's men's 4x100m quartet of Vernon Lee, Lim Ching Hwang, Tern Jian Han and Ian James Barr could only earn a bronze (3:32.51) behind gold medallists Indonesia (3:25.72) and Singapore (3:26.85).
Former Malaysia Games champion Marellyn Liew finished a disappointing sixth in the 100m butterfly, which subsequently ended her hopes of Olympic qualification. She clocked 1:03.44 in the race, which was won by Singapore's Sea Games champion Tao Li.