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Nikles swims to new record
Saturday, July 30, 2011


Three out of four isn't bad.

Competing in the biggest event of his 13-year-old life, Christian Nikles set a new national record in the men's 50m freestyle at the 14th Fina World Championships in Shanghai, China, yesterday.

Ending the Sultanate's campaign on a high note, Nikles (pic) clocked 25.86 seconds in the heats at the Shanghai Oriential Sports Centre, breaking his and Brunei's previous best of 26.01s set at the Asean School Games (ASG) in Singapore early last month.

It was the third consecutive national record to be broken at the July 16-31 event which has attracted the world's best swimmers.

Medals were always going to be out of the question for the country's two swimmers in the Chinese metropolis, Nikles and Anderson Lim Chee Wei, who were competing in two events each.

Breaking their own national records was the target national swim coach Eric Landa had set out for the duo, and after missing the mark in the opener, did exactly what was asked of them in the other three.

Lim was the first to take to the pool.

The 15-year-old Bruneian swam 4:34.95 in the 400m freestyle heats on Sunday, more than a second off the national record which stands at 4:33.76. The 200m freestyle heats on Monday saw him clock a time of 2:06.40 to break his previous record of 2:08.18.

Wednesday was Nikles's turn to prove himself, and he repaid Landa's trust by breaking the national 100m freestyle record.

He clocked a time of 57.44s to better his old time of 57.59s, which was also set at last month's ASG.

Courtesy from Brunei Times