Anderson Lim Chee Wei swam perhaps his best race of the 4th Asian Indoor & Martial Arts Games (AIMAG) yesterday after finishing fourth in the men's 100m short course (25m) freestyle heats on 54.92s.

Competing in the final of his three events at the Dowon Aquatics Center, Lim had a strong start and was third until the final lap of the seven-man heats.

But despite his good showing, Lim was still unable to qualify for the final as one of the eight fastest swimmers in the four heats.

Probably more disappointing was the fact he failed to beat the national record set by friend Christian Nikles at December's World Short Course Swimming Championships in Istanbul 54.21s.

Lim was always gunning to set new national records in each of his three events here in Incheon, but the country's first Olympian only managed to smash the 200m freestyle record on Tuesday when he became the first Bruneian to swim the event in under two minutes (1:58.84).

Lim clocked 1:01.70 in his first event on Monday, the 100m butterfly, with Nikles' 59.49s during last year's FINA/Arena Swimming World Cup in Singapore still the time to beat.

Yesterday's race, though, should go some way in erasing Monday's memories.

"I had a good start and had a good first turn," said the 17-year-old, who was just 0.08s away from third-placed Sergey Krovyakov of Turkmenistan (54.84s)

"I was third until the third turn but my third lap was not too good I guess it was because I was tired.

"I couldn't get my stroke-rate fast enough today, but overall, talking about the three events, I think my endurance was there," added Lim, who became Brunei's first Olympian swimmer when he competed in London last year.

A large reason Lim has seen his endurance improve is because he has been studying at the prestigious Bolles School in Florida, an institution famous for its swim programme which has produced many Olympians.

Lim recently graduated from the school and has enrolled to study at the University of Rochester and has been training in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, in preparation for AIMAG as there are no short course pools in Brunei.

The long-distance specialist has also broke three other national records in May when he was in Florida; the 1500m freestyle (17:46.65), 400m Inter-Medley open (5:08.19) and 400m freestyle (4:23.50).

Vietnam's Hoang Quy Phuoc, who won Lim's heat on 49.69s, went on to win the final with a time of 48.98s.

China's Liu Junwu took silver with 49.18s while Kazakstan's Yevgeniy Azryev claimed bronze with 49.57s.

Courtesy from Brunei Times