National swimmer Christian Nikles poses for a photo at the 5th FINA World Junior Swimming Championships in Singapore.Courtesy of Eric Landa
A "CALM and relaxed" Christian Nikles broke the national record in the 100m butterfly event yesterday after clocking 58.81s during the heats at the 5th FINA World Junior Swimming Championships in Singapore.
Nikles' time was 0.82s faster than his own national open and age group record of 59.62s from Nov 22, 2013. "Christian had a good race this morning, his first 50m not too fast so he had something left at the end to finish strong," said national aquatic sports head coach Eric Landa in an email.
"The butterfly has been going quite well during training in Brunei but you always have to see and wait if that indeed results in faster times during a competition. "He kept really calm and relaxed before and during his race so he could execute his race the way he planned it," he added.
The 17 year-old made his way to the half way mark and turned with a time of 27.34s and returned in 31.47s. His time placed him 61st among the 80 swimmers who participated in the event, 5.85s behind the fastest male qualifier of the morning - Daniil Pakhomov from Russia - who swam 52.96s.
Nikles will be competing in the 50m freestyle today. He is also to swim alongside teammate Muhammad Isa Ahmad in the 50m butterfly tomorrow. Nikles will swim the 100m freestyle on Saturday, with Muhammad Isa competing in the 50m breaststroke on the same day.
Muhammad Isa kicked off Brunei's campaign in Singapore in the 100m breaststroke on Tuesday, where he was unable to break his national record by 2.90s. Muhammad Isa swam 1.10.80 during the heats, which though was his best time of the season, was still 2.90s slower than his own national record of 1.07.90 from Nov 24, 2013.
