Skip to main content

Marathon swimmer Heidi does Malaysia proud again

PETALING JAYA: Heidi Gan has made Malaysia proud once more in the international open water swimming scene.

On Saturday, the 26-year-old splashed her way to a commendable fourth-place finish in the third leg of the FINA 10km Marathon Swimming World Cup in Noumea, New Caledonia.
The Perth-based Heidi completed the gruelling race at the Anse Vata Bay in 2’12:34.12, just two seconds behind third-placed Coralie Codevelle of France. Heidi earned US$1,200 (RM4,300) for her efforts.

Aurelie Muller of France emerged victorious, crossing the finish line in 2’09.18.70. Hungarian Anna Olasz clocked 2’09:45.80 to take the silver.

The fourth place was Heidi’s best-ever outing in the prestigious World Cup.

In her two previous appearances, she finished 17th in Hong Kong in 2013 but failed to finish the race in Portugal after suffering from hypothermia at the Setubal Bay.

“I’m pleased with how I finished in New Caledonia,” said Heidi, who defended her elite women’s 10km crown in Round 4 of the Swimming Western Australia’s Open Water Series in December.

“I’m in the best form of my life. I have been training very hard in Perth. I have been able to complete sets and post times I haven’t been able to achieve. I’m excited to continue see how my form ranks against the rest of the world’s top elite open water athletes,” said Heidi who finished 16th in the open water event at the 2012 London Olympics.

Heidi will be heading for Cancun, Mexico, in two weeks’ time for the fourth leg of the World Cup on May 2. It will be her last race before the World Aquatics Championships in Kazan, Russia, from July 24-Aug 9. The championships mark the first phase of qualification for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.



by Tan Ming Wai The Star

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ex-coach's jail sentence cut to a year

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal yesterday sentenced former athletics coach C. Ramanathan to 12 months' jail for molesting two junior athletes 19 years ago. A three-man bench led by Datuk Mohd Hishamudin Mohd Yunus unanimously dismissed Ramanathan's appeal against conviction, but varied the jail sentence of four years to a year, which was to run concurrently. Following yesterday's ruling, Ramanathan, 75, a former teacher, walked out a free man as he had served 10 months in Kajang Prison. Convicts get one-third remission for good behaviour while in prison. However, he will lose his pension. Hishamudin, who sat with Datuk Abdul Wahab Patail and Datuk Linton Albert, said the court found no merit to overturn the conviction. "However, in reducing the sentence, we considered Ramanathan's age and the long years the appeal has taken." Deputy public prosecutor Awang Armadajaya Awang Mahmud submitted that then High Court judge Tan Sri Abdull Hamid E...
2 comments
Read more

Badminton: Fans rooting for all-Malaysian semis

Reports: RAJES PAUL KUALA LUMPUR: The home fans will be rooting for an all-Malaysian men’s singles semi-final between Lee Chong Wei and Liew Daren. But Chong Wei is more fancied to advance than Daren in quarter-final matches against Indonesian Simon Santoso and Dane Peter Gade-Christensen respectively at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil today. Yesterday, Chong Wei defeated Vietnamese Nguyen Tien Minh 21-9, 18-21, 21-7 in a second-round match that saw the world number one struggling to adapt to the draught in the stadium in the second game. And Daren continued a fairy tale run in his home Open, blowing away a toothless Hsueh Hsuan-yi of Taiwan 21-14, 21-12. Although Choong Wei had to slog for the win over Tien Minh, the top seed and defending champion felt that he was playing better by the day. “I got off to a good start but found it hard to cope with the draught. I tried to catch up after losing my momentum but that did not happen and I decided to conserve energy for ...
11 comments
Read more

Rajagobal Let Off The Hook

PETALING JAYA, April 24 (Bernama) -- National head coach Datuk K. Rajagobal was let off the hook by the Football Association of Malaysia's (FAM) Disciplinary Committee after finding no evidence that he had violated FAM's Article 88, as claimed. FAM Disciplinary Committee chairman Datuk Taufik Abdul Razak said the committee had decided not to charge Rajagobal after carefully analysing the video of the post-match press conference by the 56-year-old coach. "After listening to the recording of the post-match press conference, we decided to drop the charge against Rajagopal as he did not make such a statement. "Maybe his (Rajagobal) assessment and comments of the match was misconstrued by the media. There was no mention of the FAM policy throughout his comments," said Taufik after emerging from a three-hour Disciplinary Committee meeting at Wisma FAM in Kelana Jaya, here, Wednesday. Rajagobal who does not mince his words when asked to com...
4 comments
Read more