KUALA LUMPUR: Tan Rouxin became the first Malaysian swimmer in 35 years to win a medal at a short course World Cup event.
She bagged a bronze in the 400m individual medley in Shanghai today.
Rouxin touched the wall to record a time of four minutes 55.27 seconds. Canadian Mary-Sophie Harvey (4:28.03s) won the gold and Slovakia's Nikoleta Trnikova (4:44.81s) clinched the silver.
Rouxin, 18, who competed in the recent Paris Olympics, was just 0.79 second shy of her own national record of 4:54.48s posted in the inaugural National Short Course Championships in July.
"The field in many of the races is quite unpredictable due to varying long course and short course entry times.
"Rouxin's bronze medal is unexpected, but it was a big moment for her to swim in a World Cup final," said national coach Eric Anderson.
The last Malaysian to win a short course World Cup medal was Jeffery Ong who earned a silver in the 1,500m freestyle in 1989.
Hii Puong Wei, Chong Xin Lin and Dhuha Zulfikry also set new national records in Shanghai.
Puong Wei posted a time of 2:00.27s in the men's 200m individual medley preliminary round to rewrite Jayden Tan's mark of 2:00.73s.
Xin Lin broke her own national record by registering 1:00.45s in the preliminary round of the women's 100m backstroke. She shaved 0.36s off her previous mark of 1:00.81s. But it was was insufficient to qualify for the final.
Dhuha Zulfikry, who won six gold medals at the Sarawak Malaysia Games in August, broke Jeffrey's 35-year-old national mark in the 1,500m freestyle.
He bettered Jeffrey's time of 15:27.05s with a swim of 14:59.80s in the final.
The 16-year-old also became the first Malaysian swimmer to dip under the 15-minute mark for the 1,500m freestyle event.
He was only 5.33s off the bronze medal-winning time of 14:54.47s set by Estonia's Kregor Zirk.