SEA Games: Quah Zheng Wen wins 200m backstroke in new Games mark

KUALA LUMPUR — Quah Zheng Wen retained his 200m backstroke title in style on Wednesday night (Aug 23) by setting a new SEA Games record of 2min 00.09sec.

The time eclipsed the previous Games mark of 2:00.55sec, which was also set by Quah at the 2015 SEA Games in Singapore.

But Quah was not the only one who swam impressively. In fact, he was almost upstaged by 17-year-old teammate Francis Fong who even overtook him during the final 25m of the race before being pipped to the wall by Quah. And Quah acknowledged how close a race it was when he exclaimed after coming out of the pool: "Now that was painful."

Debutant Fong finished second in 2:00.49, cutting his personal best by three seconds.

"It feels amazing," he said. "I had no expectations so this was a surreal experience," he said with a huge smile after the race. 

While Fong won his first medal of the Games,  Quah's triumph means that he has now won three gold medals in Kuala Lumpur. He won the 200m butterfly and the 4x100m freestyle relay on Tuesday. He also won a silver medal in the 50m backstroke on Monday.

Indonesia's Ricky Anggawidjaja was third in 2:02.76.