Youth Olympic Swimming: Cheryl Lim and Rainer Ng qualify for semi-finals

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

Singapore Sports School, Sunday, August 15, 2010 — Singapore’s Cheryl Lim clocked a time of 33.82 seconds to scrape into the semi-finals of the Women’s 50m breaststroke as the final qualifier in the Singapore Youth Olympic Games (YOG) swimming competition.

Cheryl was the second swimmer off the blocks in her heat, after her Brazilian counterpart Alessandra Marchioro. But she was unable to make use of her head start and trailed behind other swimmers. Cheryl eventually finished sixth in her heats and 16th overall – 1.66s behind the leading qualifier, Canada’s Rachel Nicol – to make it to the semi-finals.

In the Men’s 100m backstroke, Rainer Ng clocked a time of 57.50s to qualify for the semi-finals with the eighth fastest time overall.

Rainer was the first off the blocks with Croatian Ivan Biondic close behind. He used the head start to his advantage and maintained a comfortable pace. He was in second place at the halfway mark, but was soon overtaken on the return lap. Rainer eventually finished fifth in his heat to qualify for the semi-finals.

He bettered his timing of 58.67s which was a podium finish in last year’s Asian Youth Games, and also his year’s best time of 57.67. Rainer’s personal best stands at 56.73 which is the national record.

Clement Lim failed to qualify for the Men’s 400m freestyle final after finishing 15th overall with a timing of four minutes 4.24 seconds.

Adeline Winata and Chriselle Koh also did not make the mark for the Women’s 100m backstroke after finishing 30th and 35th with times of 1:08.06 and 1:09:93 respectively.

Pang Sheng Jun failed to make the semi-final cut for the Men’s 100m breaststroke. He finished 21st overall with a timing of 1:06.46.

The semi-finals will start this evening at 6.30pm at the Singapore Sports School.