Open Water Swimming - 5000m: Gold Medal for Vietnam and malaysia

Posted : 17 Nov 2011 12:27:10

Jakarta (UR) -

Malaysian swimmer Heidi Gan won the open water swimming event at Putri Island in the Thousand Islands regency north of Jakarta on Thursday at the 26^th SEA Games.

She covered the 5 kilometers in one hour, 11 minutes and 47.454 seconds, not only overcoming her rivals, but also battling strong sea currents in a race that she led from the start.

“I never thought the waves would be so strong. It’s tiring, but I made it. It could be as an ideal warmup for the 10,000 meters the day after tomorrow,” Heidi said.

“I was stung by jellyfish five times, but that did not affect me because I trained in similar conditions in Australia. It still hurts but I think I will get better,” she added.

Heidi, however, complained of the poor visibility of the buoys that served as race markers. “I was a bit confused because I followed the men’s line and I was swept away by a strong current,” she said.

The silver medal went to Vietnam’s Thi Ngoc Bich Nguyen in 1:13:45:031, while Indonesia’s Yessy Yosaputra took bronze in 1:15:19:323.

Her compatriot Reina Saumi was in fourth.

Vietnam’s Thi Ngoc Yen Nguyen was disqualified from the race after failing to complete the course by 9:56 a.m. (UR-4)

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