Paralympics: Singapore swimmer Toh Wei Soong finishes 7th in S7 400m freestyle final

SINGAPORE - Swimmer Toh Wei Soong finished seventh in the men's S7 400m freestyle final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics on Sunday (Aug 29).

The 22-year-old clocked 5min 6.39sec at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

Mark Malyar of Israel won the gold after smashing his previous world record with a time of 4:31.06. His previous record of 4:33.64 was set at the 2019 World Para Swimming World Championships in London.

Ukraine's Andrii Trusov won the silver in 4:35.56 ahead of American Evan Austin (4:38.95).

Toh, who has transverse myelitis - a condition caused by the inflammation of the spinal cord, will also compete in the men's S7 50m freestyle and men's S7 50m butterfly on Tuesday and Friday respectively.

Earlier in the day, Toh had booked his spot in the final with a 5:03.82 effort.

The 22-year-old had said after the heats that he did not feel a lot of pressure coming into the Tokyo Paralympics.

He told the Olympic Information Service: "It feels really good. I think the experiences of the Commonwealth Games, Asian Para Games and World Championships have prepared me for a meet of this scale and the main philosophy with which I'm entering this competition is just to have a good time.

"Any athlete would like to win a medal. That's not something you want to put aside as a dream. But to me, I'm just here to have a good time because when you start thinking about small stuff... because it's not going to be perfect; you might cause yourself some unnecessary stress."

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