Youth Olympic Swimming: Adeline and Sheng Jun secure maiden semi-final appearances

Story by Ng Enna/Red Sports. Photos By Vanessa Lim/Red Sports

Singapore Sports School, Wednesday, August 18, 2010 — Singapore’s Adeline Winata and Pang Sheng Jun advanced from the heats of an individual event for the first time on the fourth day of swimming action in the Youth Olympic Games.

Starting in lane six for the men’s 50m Butterfly, Sheng Jun finished fourth in his heat with a time of 25.63 seconds, making him the second fastest Singaporean in this event this year, just behind Dzuhaili Mohd Kamal’s 25.57.

Ranked 10th overall, Sheng Jun was pleasantly surprised to set a new personal best and to qualify for the semi-final as well.

“I don’t usually train sprint events so I was very happy to set a new personal best. My previous PB was about four to five years ago because I stopped training for this event,” Sheng Jun mused.

“There aren’t events like 400m Individual Medley in this YOG so I decided to try out the 50 Fly. I did not expect to make it for the semi-final so hopefully I’d be able to progress on to the final,” continued Sheng Jun, who turns 18 in two weeks time. He is the national record holder in the 400m IM.

Arren Quek, who was slated to swim in the 50m Butterfly heats, was withdrawn in a last-minute decision.

“I increased my training regime but my coach thinks that I am still not ready for such a hectic competition schedule. I usually swim five events but now I’m doing a minimum of six, so it would be a wiser choice to scratch this event,” Arren clarified.

In the women’s 50m Backstroke, Adeline came in fifth in her heat. With a time of 31.43 seconds, the 16-year-old managed to scrape into the semi-finals as the 15th qualifier. It also improved on her personal mark of 31.50.

Adeline was “quite happy” with the results after managing a new personal best. However, she could not quite replicate her performance in the 200m Freestyle.

Adeline was ranked 37th overall out of 41 participants, finishing fifth in her heat with a time of 2 minutes 12.69 seconds.

Despite swimming the 50m Backstroke half an hour prior to this event, Adeline cited that fatigue was not the reason for her mediocre performance. Instead, she was distracted when her goggles came off during her plunge.

“My goggles came off and it was the first time such a thing happened so I was quite stressed,” explained Adeline.

Compatriot Amanda Lim also missed out on the final by just 0.59 seconds, placing her 13th overall. Nonetheless, the freestyle specialist sent the local supporters into ecstasy when she came in third in her heat with a time of 2:04.68.

Amanda noted that the race was not as painful as she thought, and added that: “My competition strategy is pretty much the same so I just had to focus.”

The men’s 4x100m Medley relay team concluded the morning heats by claiming a major scalp on the way to finishing 10th overall. The quartet of Rainer Ng, Sheng Jun, Clement Lim and Arren finished in a time of 3:52.89 which was 0.09 seconds quicker than that of the United States of America, albeit with a weaker squad in these Games.

“We were definitely affected by our previous races due to the lactic build-up,” Rainer explained.

When asked about what went wrong during the race, Rainer replied: “We ended really late last night and by the time we got back, it was already ten plus. I think we probably needed more rest.”

Adeline will swim her semi-finals tonight at 6.35pm, and Sheng Jun at 7.24pm. Sandwiched between the two will arguably be the main draw for Singapore fans tonight. Rainer will be competing for medal honours in the 50m Backstroke final, at 7pm.

For Singapore fixtures and results, go to our 2010 YOG fixtures page

For Singapore fixtures and results, go to our 2010 YOG fixtures page