Former national swimmer, Olympian Lim Heng Chek dies at age 85

KUALA LUMPUR, May 16 -- Former national swimmer and Olympian Lim Heng Chek died on Saturday at the age of 85.

The Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM), in a statement today, described the demise of Lim as a great loss to the swimming fraternity in Malaysia and expressed their deepest condolences to his family members.

“The late Lim Heng Chek was a great athlete who had participated in all four major multi-sport Games under the jurisdiction of Federation of Malaya Olympic Council (FMOC), namely the Olympic Games, British Empire and Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and South-East Asian Peninsular (SEAP) Games,” OCM said in a statement posted on their Facebook page.

Lim was a member of the contingent of the Federation of Malaya and made his Olympic debut at the 16th Olympic Games in Melbourne 1956, where he participated in the men’s 100m backstroke event and clocked 1:12.4s. 

He also participated in the first SEAP Games in Bangkok in 1959, where he had contributed two gold medals in the men’s 100m backstroke and 100m butterfly events. He also won a silver medal in 100m backstroke at the second SEAP Games in Yangon in 1961.

He also coached the Selangor and national swimming teams for 15 years from 1964 to 1979.

“He was inducted into the OCM Hall of Fame in 2013 for his contributions to the development of swimming, from being a national swimmer to national coach, team official, technical official, honorary secretary and vice-president of the Amateur Swimming Union Of Malaysia,” the statement read.

-- BERNAMA