I had the opportunity to compete in the Malaysia Freediving Pool Games (MFPG) in Penang as part of my preparation for the upcoming AIDA Pool World Championship. It was great to see many familiar faces back on the start list again — especially with the current top three Malaysian DNF athletes all competing together, making it feel like a rematch of our showdown back in December. More importantly, I was genuinely happy to finally achieve the national record after chasing it for almost a year. Looking back, the 138m dive was probably the best execution I could realistically hope for at this stage. My two max training sessions leading into the competition were 130m and 140m, so I’m grateful that I was able to perform close to that range under competition pressure. One personal objective I had this season was to close the gap between my personal best in training and my competition performances, as there had consistently been a 10m+ difference between the two. I’m relieved to see that gap becoming smaller. I was also happy with how I handled the surface protocol. The dive was quite hypoxic by the end and I experienced a slight samba on the surface, but I’m proud that the recovery breathing felt almost automatic — a reminder that the repetition and training are slowly becoming muscle memory. Overall, the competition served its purpose well: to regain the competition rhythm before Worlds, while also giving me a meaningful result to carry forward. I still have a lot to improve — especially in managing performance anxiety, particularly on the day before competition — but I’m happy that I was able to experience those emotions, stay with them, and still perform. It feels like another part of the training that I’m slowly learning to handle better.