In the men’s 100m breaststroke at the 31st FISU World University Games (formerly known as the Universiade) in Chengdu on Tuesday, local professional swimmer Chao Man Hou broke the nine-year Macau record of 01:02.91, which had been in place since 2014. Chao spoke about his latest swimming feats in an online interview with The Macau Post Daily yesterday.
Chan will compete in the 31st FISU World University Games men’s 50m breaststroke tomorrow.
Chao, 27, is best known for his breaststroke, setting 29 Macau swimming records and reaching the men’s 50m and 200m breaststroke finals at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, where he finished sixth in the men’s 50m breaststroke. Last year, at the World Short Course Swimming Championships in Australia, he reached the semifinals for the first time.
Chao said he considered his performance at the world championships to be a regular one for him, but he was still surprised to break Macau’s long-standing record, “It is my first time to break the Macau record of the men’s 100m breaststroke, which previously stood at 1.02.91 seconds, and made it into 1:01.98.”
Chao stressed that the government has invested a lot of resources in swimming. “The training facilities are abundant and will get better with time. There is also the opportunity to enter competition outside of Macau.” He added that in the past year, with the support of the Sports Bureau and the Macau Swimming Association, he went to the United States for more intensive swimming training, where he felt he had made progress.
According to the Sports Bureau (ID), under the bureau’s training subsidy programme for elite athletes starting from 2014, athletes are divided into three levels, with a monthly subsidy ranging from 1,000 to 25,000 patacas. Only those who win gold medals in the World Championships or Asian Games can get the highest subsidy.
So far, a total of 317 athletes have participated in the elite athletes’ programme.
Chao said he will continue to surpass himself: “My best result is the Macau swimming record I set, I hope to break it, reach the semifinals, and the final of the 31st FISU World University Games men’s 50m breaststroke tomorrow.”
This handout photo taken from Macau professional swimmer Chao Man Hou’s Instagram post shows him after finishing a competition at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Japan last week. – Photo from Eyepress by Alan Siu
