Youth Olympic Swimming: Rainer Ng clinches first silver medal for Singapore

Story by Ng Enna/Red Sports. Photos by Marvin Lowe, Les Tan/Red Sports

Singapore Sports School, Wednesday, August 18, 2010 — Rainer Ng clocked a time of 26.45 seconds to finish second in the men’s 50m Backstroke final, securing the first silver medal for Singapore and bringing the republic’s medal tally to three at the Youth Olympic Games.

A thankful Rainer said: “I’m really happy with my performance although it was a bit slower than the semi-final. I am disappointed about that, but knowing that I had to settle for second by 0.09s, it was the nearest of margins, and I’m glad that at least I have got a silver.”

The highly-excitable crowd whipped itself into a state of frenzy when Rainer was introduced to them before the race. Starting in lane five, Rainer was third off the blocks and it could have been the reason why he came in merely 0.09 seconds behind eventual champion Christian Homer of Trinidad and Tobago.

“I was told that my start was a bit slow so maybe that probably cost the race, but I kept fighting till the end,” Rainer explained.

Nevertheless, the crowd was euphoric when it was confirmed that Rainer had clinched the silver medal. Among them was the overjoyed mother of the 18-year-old Raffles Institution student.

“He put on a very great performance because he did very well among the top-notch athletes around the world,” noted a very proud Mrs Ng.

She continued: “We made a choice for him to adjourn his studies to concentrate on the Youth Olympics, because that is what he desires and swimming is his passion. Therefore as a mother, I need to support him. Of course I hope to see him move on to higher levels of competitive swimming.”

Even though his time of 26.45 seconds was 0.08s shy of his personal best set in the semi-finals, coach David Lim was very pleased with Rainer’s performance.

“I am very proud of Rainer,” beamed Mr Lim. “He was present at every training, and I think that missing out on the 100m Backstroke final on Sunday certainly spurred Rainer on to perform better in today’s final.”

Rainer was significantly smaller built than his opponents but it neither intimidated nor deterred him from giving his all in the race.

“You have to go in with the belief that you can succeed even though other competitors are bigger or stronger. This will serve as a motivation to other Singapore athletes who are smaller compared to athletes from other countries,” said Rainer.

He went on to leave an inspiring message for his fellow local athletes.

“It (this silver medal winning performance) shows that as long as they have the determination to do well, they can compete with other world-class athletes,” added Rainer.

In an earlier race, Adeline Winata finished 15th in the Women’s 50m backstroke semi-finals and was unable to progress to the next stage of competition. She clocked a time of 31.48s, just 0.05 seconds shy of her heat time and personal best.

“I think I did okay but I could have done better because I felt faster in the morning’s heat. I was also quite afraid that my goggles would come off again,” commented Adeline.

In the men’s 50m Butterfly semi-finals, Pang Sheng Jun was disqualified for false starting.

Tomorrow’s programme will start at 9.31am with the women’s 50m Freestyle heats, where Singapore’s freestyle specialist, Amanda Lim, will make an appearance in her pet event at the Singapore Sports School. She is the national record holder in this event.