NAKHON RATCHASIMA: The Malaysian camp’s wait to see the glint of gold from the swimming pool finally ended when Rusdianto Rusmadi presented the inaugural gold medal in the para swimming event at the 2025 ASEAN Para Games (APG) here, today (Jan 22).
The national athlete performed brilliantly to win the men’s 50-meter butterfly event in the S8 category with a time of 30.54 seconds (s) in the final, beating two Vietnamese representatives, Huynh Anh Khoa who won silver (31.26s) and Quang Thoal Han who took home bronze (33.41s).
Rusdianto’s success has certainly instilled a boost in the spirit of the national para swimming camp to continue chasing success until the final day of the competition scheduled to take place this Sunday.
The 32-year old athlete said that the success of defending the gold medal he won at the 2023 Cambodian Paralympic Games was proof that all the hard work and sweat throughout training was not in vain.
He admitted that the intensive preparation period of about three months demanded great sacrifices, including sacrificing time with his family and postponing meetings with relatives in order to fully focus on training.
“I know that there are many new athletes in the team now, so I have to give my best. I will continue to go all out,” he said, stressing that the gold medal was not just a personal success, but hoped it could be a catalyst for the development of other para athletes, especially new recruits.
Earlier, Rusdianto also contributed a silver medal in the men’s 100-meter backstroke S7-S8 event after recording a time of 1 minute 14.77 seconds.
The gold medal in the event was won by Vietnam’s representative, Vo Huynh Anh Khoa, with a time of 1:12.94s, while the bronze went to Singaporean athlete, Toh Wei Soong (1:18.31s).
Rusdianto will compete in the final of the men’s 100m butterfly S8 tomorrow. – BERNAMA
