The 19-year-old, the only participant in the event held behind closed doors due to Covid-19, clocked 2:00.80s to erase former national swimmer Alex Lim Keng Liat’s mark of 2:00.94s.

Alex had set the old record en route to winning the silver medal at the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games.

The new national record enabled Hoe Yean to better the Olympic Selection Time (OST) of 2:01.03s.

“It’s really great and I’m speechless. I’m so happy that I’ve made the B-cut (for the Olympics) in another event and broken the national record,” the Kuala Lumpur swimmer told Bernama.

“I didn’t feel anything different despite swimming alone since it’s a backstroke event.

“I couldn’t really see what was going on other than the sky or the rooftop, so it was alright to swim alone. There’s no difference if you know what you are going to do.”

Hoe Yean will compete in the 200m and 800m freestyle events tomorrow.

Yesterday, Hoe Yean, whose previous competitive outing saw him bag eight gold medals at the Malaysia Invitational Age Group Swimming Championships in March last year, blew away Olympian Welson Sim to win the men’s 400m freestyle, clocking 3:51.56s, beating another OST mark.

Only swimmers who meet the Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT) in their respective events by June 27 are guaranteed slots at the Olympics.

In the case of the men’s 200m backstroke event, the OQT is 1:57.50s.

Swimmers can also qualify under the OST, based on universal participation, meaning a nation with no Olympic qualifier will be allowed to enter up to one male and one female swimmer for the Tokyo Games.

So far, Welson and Hoe Yean have surpassed the OST in the men’s 400m freestyle while Phee Jinq En has made the OST cut in the women’s 100m breaststroke.

Meanwhile, Welson made up for yesterday’s disappointment by winning today’s men’s 100m butterfly in 56.38s.