The 19-year-old, who was again the sole participant, clocked eight minutes and six seconds (8:06.00s) to erase Olympian Welson Sim’s 8:09.77s set at Victorian Open in February 2019.

The Kuala Lumpur swimmer’s time at the National Aquatic Centre also broke the meet record of 8:12.11s by Srihari Nataraj of India in 2019 and dipped below the Olympic Selection Time (OST) of 8:08.54s, reaching very close to the Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT) of 7:54.31s.

“It’s my first time swimming in the event, so it’s a good time,” said Hoe Yean.

“But before the swim, I was confident of going fast because I felt good in the warmup. To be honest, I did aim for the record before I jumped in.”

Hoe Yean also dipped below the OST of 1:50.23s in men’s 200m freestyle, winning the event in 1:49.38s to leave record holder Welson (1:50.64s) and Low Zheng Yong (1:56.28s) second and third.

Yesterday, Hoe Yean broke Alex Lim Keng Liat’s 23-year-old 200m backstroke national record (2:00.94s) by clocking 2:00.80s.

Hoe Yean has surpassed the OST in the 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle and 200m backstroke events while Welson and Phee Jinq En made the cut in men’s 400m freestyle and women’s 100m breaststroke.

Only swimmers who meet the OQT in their events by June 27 are guaranteed slots at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. In men’s 200m backstroke, 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 Tokyo.