Miri swimmer shatters 23-year swim record

KUCHING (Dec 9): Up and coming swimmer from Miri, Liysha Liung Celestine Baru, hogged the limelight at the ongoing Tan Sri Datuk Patinggi Dr Wong Soon Kai Inter Club Swimming Championship at Pandelela Rinong Aquatic Centre today.

The 11-year-old student from St Columba Primary School, Miri, who represented Miri Amateur Swimming Association (Masa), shattered a 23-year meet record when she splashed to the gold medal in the Girls D (9-10 years) 100m backstroke in a record time of 1:16.21, thus erasing the old mark of 1:16.75 set by Sheila Wong also of MASA in 2000.

Liysha went on to cap a double by taking the 50m backstroke in a time of 37.37, beating 26 other swimmers. She also captured another gold in the 100m freestyle where she posted a time of 1:07.46.

Her fourth medal of the day was a silver from the 100m breaststroke with a time of 1:35.99 and she finished fourth in the 50m butterfly.

Liysha will round up her campaign in the WSK Challenge Trophy tomorrow by competing in the 50m freestyle.

“I feel very happy to be able to break this 23-year record. In fact, l didn’t think about breaking the record as l was focused on swimming my best and trying to win,” she told thesundaypost when met at the pool this afternoon.

“I am also satisfied with my performance and glad to be able to contribute medals to MASA in this championship,” added Liysha.

Liysha who is of Lunbawang-Chinese parentage, took up swimming in July 2019 and only managed to win two golds and one silver in the Girls Age 7-8 category at the Datuk Lee Kim Shin Challenge Trophy in October that year and it was her third competition.

She was also named the Best Girl (Age 7-8) in that meet.

The Covid-19 pandemic put a stop to her swimming activities from 2020 to 2022 before she joined training under David Chung of Top Speed Aquatic Swimming Club.

Currently training under coach Allister Chung at the club, Liysha puts in six days of training with two hours of training daily.

Her more notable achievements this year include bagging a silver in the 100m backstroke and a bronze in the 50m backstroke at Malaysia Invitational Age Group and two golds in the 50m and 100m backstroke as well as a silver in the 100m freestyle and bronze in the 50m freestyle at the Sportexcel Junior Swimming Circuit Grand Final.

Meanwhile, Liysha’s teammate Bong Rui Jie also broke the Boys 11-12 100m freestyle with a time of 56.86 and other record breakers on the first day of competition included Shanise Jauwa Joseline Adong of Kasa (Girls 11-12 100m backstroke – 1:09.66, 50m individual medley – 2:12.59 and 50m backstroke – 33.02) and Magdelene Lau Ing Siew of Kasa in the Girls 15-17 100m breaststroke in 1:17.75.

A total of 307 swimmers from 12 clubs and associations from Brunei and Sarawak are taking part in this competition which ends tomorrow.

Masa are currently in the lead with 449 points, followed closely by Power Aquatics Swimming Club with 424.50 points and Kuching Amateur Swimming Association (Kasa) with 400 points.

In fourth and fifth positions are Sibu Amateur Swimming Association and Art Swimming Club with 342.50 points and 206 points respectively.