National record in sight as Khai Xin storms into 400m IM final

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia continued its momentum in the pool as swimmer Tan Khai Xin reached the men's 400m individual medley final at the Tokyo Aquatic Centre on Tuesday.

Khai Xin clocked 4:24.38 seconds to finish fifth in Heat 2, where Japan's Yumeki Kojima (4:21.54), South Korea's Kim Min Suk (4:21.80) and Vietnam's Nguyen Quang Thuan (4:23.55) occupied the top three spots.

Khai Xin, who finished 10th overall to advance to the medal race, can be expected to challenge his national mark of 4:23.24, set at the 2023 Cambodia SEA Games, in the final later on Tuesday.

Another Malaysian, Goh Li Jie, who also swam in the same heat, finished ninth in 4:52.72 and was placed 18th among the 24 swimmers.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian 4x100m medley quartet of Khiew Hoe Yan, Andrew Goh, Bryan Leong and Arvin Shaun Singh Chahal clocked 3:42.78 to finish sixth in Heat 2 and missed out on the final.

The top three qualifiers from the heat were Japan (3:33.62), China (3:36.56) and Indonesia (3:38.97).

The Malaysian quartet, whose national record stands at 3:41.92, finished 11th among 16 nations.

In the men's 1,500m freestyle, Duha Zulfikiry clocked 15:38.23 to finish sixth in the B final.