Asiad swimming: Welsom Sim sets new national record in 800m

JAKARTA: National swimmer Welsom Sim Wee Sheng set a New National Record (NR) in the final of the men's 800m freestyle at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games here today.
The Sarawak-born swimmer clocked 8 minutes 12:46 seconds at the Gelora Bung Karno Aquatics Centre, thus rewriting the old NR of 8:12:74s which he himself set at the Malaysian Open Swimming Championships in 2015.
However, despite the good time, he finished last out of eight swimmers.
Former Olympic champion Sun Yang from China set a new Games Record of 7:48:36s en route to the gold while Takeda Shogo of Japan and Vietnamese Nguyen Huy Hoang picked up the silver and bronze after posting 7:53:01s and 7:54:32 s respectively.
Earlier, another national swimmer, Tern Jian Han failed to make the final in the men's 50m back stroke. His time of 26.88s in the heats was only good enough for 20th place out of 38 contestants. — Bernama