Elvis advances as Jinq En turns back the clock at Singapore worlds
In swimming, Phee Jinq En's decision to skip the women's 100 metre breaststroke on Monday (Aug 28) paid dividends at the OCBC Aquatics Centre as she clocked her fastest time in the 50m breaststroke in over five years.
Jinq En, 27, who has battled injuries and illness in recent seasons, clocked 31.78 seconds to place 30th from 53 starters in the preliminaries.
Her time was just over three-tenths of a second off her national record (31.40s) which she set en route to winning the gold at the 2019 Manila Sea Games.
Jinq En had picked up a hip injury during training last week and opted to sit out the 100m breaststroke on Monday to focus on the 50m event, which is her favoured event.
Only the top-16 advanced to the 50m breaststroke semi-finals.
In diving, Elvis Clement kept hopes of seeing a Malaysian diver make the final of an individual event in Singapore alive after booking his spot in the semi-finals of the men's 10m platform individual event.
Elvis' dives scored 64.50, 72.00, 82.50, 86.70, 62.40 and 64.80 for a 432.90 total to place 10th overall and comfortably make the top-18 cut for the semi-finals tomorrow (Aug 3).
Only the top-12 divers from the semi-finals will qualify for the final, which will also be held tomorrow. So far, Malaysia has yet to qualify for the final of an individual event at this edition of the world meet.
Elvis' synchronised event partner Enrique Harold, however, settled for 37th from 48 divers on 323.45 (36.00, 67.20, 52.80, 37.95, 52.70, 76.80) and thus did not advance.
Elvis and Enrique had created history after placing seventh in the men's 10m platform synchronised final on Tuesday (Aug 29), it was the highest-ever finish by a Malaysian pair in the event at the world meet.
Bryan Nickson Lomas-James Sandayud (Montreal 2005) and Ooi Tze Liang-Chew Yiwei (Kazan 2015) had both achieved 10th place, which were previously the best finishes by a Malaysian pair.
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