Syaiful defends Asian Para Games gold with record swim

Malaysia's Nur Syaiful Zulkafli retained his Asian Para Games title in the men's 100 metre breaststroke SB4, winning the Aichi-Nagoya final in a Games-record time of one minute and 41.44 seconds.

Kazakhstan's Ali Turganbekov took silver with 1:44.26s at Nagoya City General Gymnasium, while India's Rohit Kumar finished with bronze in 1:57.25s. Syaiful's winning swim bettered the 1:41.55s record he had established during the morning preliminaries.

The record had already changed hands earlier in the heats. Turganbekov recorded 1:44.93s to surpass Syaiful's Hangzhou 2023 mark of 1:46.78s, before the Malaysian lowered it in his preliminary swim and again in the final.

Malaysia also secured a bronze through Lim Carmen in the women's 50m freestyle S8 at the same pool. She completed the final in 35.51s, behind Japan's Mai Mizukami, who claimed silver in 35.49s. China's Zhu Hui won gold with a time of 31.40s.