PENANG came agonisingly close to striking gold in the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay at the Malaysia Games 2026 (SUKMA) in Selangor, settling for silver after being edged by hosts Selangor by just 0.37 seconds.
The Penang quartet clocked 7:40.14 in the final at the Darul Ehsan Aquatic Centre here yesterday, with Selangor taking gold in 7:39.77. Federal Territories completed the podium in 7:57.55.
Despite narrowly missing out on the top step, Penang swimming coach Albert Yeap Jin Teik, 47, said the result reflected the strong individual performances of his swimmers, who he believed had produced personal-best efforts in their respective legs.
“According to their timing, they did their personal best already. They were just lacking a little bit of luck,” he said.
Yeap said he had examined the split times for each swimmer and found that all four had performed at their best.
“I checked the split times, and individually, they did their personal best already,” he said.
The close finish made the silver medal particularly bittersweet for the Penang camp, which had calculated that a gold medal was within reach if the swimmers could collectively hit the required timing.
Yeap, however, praised the team for giving everything they had in their bid to reach that target.
“I think they are okay with the result because we had calculated the timing, and we knew that we were only a little bit away from getting the gold medal.
“They tried their best to achieve that level,” he said.
The result also highlighted the depth of Penang’s swimming squad, with Yeap stressing that the 4x200m freestyle relay was a different event from the earlier 4x100m relay, which featured a different group of swimmers specialising in sprint events.
“The 4x100m is a different group of swimmers. They are our sprinters. This is the 200m event, so it is different,” he said.
With just 0.37 seconds separating Penang from gold, the silver medal nevertheless provided the squad with another strong showing on the SUKMA stage, and a clear indication that the team is capable of challenging for the top honours in the remaining events.
Story by Kevin Vimal
Pix by Muhammad Iqbal Hamdan