Youth Olympic Swimming: Best 5 moments from the pool

By Koh Yizhe/Red Sports and Ng Enna/Red Sports

In general, the Singapore swimmers didn’t disappoint at the Youth Olympic Games. Rainer Ng finished with a silver in the 50m Backstroke while Amanda Lim set a new season’s best in the 50m freestyle. Pang Sheng Jun surprised with an unexpected showing in the 50m backstroke and breaststroke.

Amanda Lim was proud of her teammates.

“Swimming did a good job and even though there was just the silver medal, it means a lot to the whole swim team, it means a lot to the whole country. And to get it against international competitors, it is very good,” said Amanda.

“We started off a little slow. First few days was trying and I felt that the team was a bit overawed by the occasion and the magnitude of the whole meet,” shared Singapore coach David Lim. “But then I got them together and told them, ‘Let’s give these supporters something to cheer about and come down to cheer for you. As we went along, it got better.”

Here are five highlights from the swimming competition.

1. Rainer Ng’s silver medal in the 50m backstroke
When Rainer Ng, 18, bagged the first silver medal in the 50m backstroke, it was, without a doubt, the best moment for Singapore swimming during the Games.

Rainer sent his supporters into hysteria when he came in first during the semi-final and clocked 26.37 seconds to set a new national record in the 50m backstroke.

The Raffles Institution student was the first local swimmer to make it to an individual final at the Games. Rainer finished behind Christian Homer of Trinidad & Tobago and he missed out on the gold by a mere 0.09 seconds. In turn, 0.01 seconds set him apart from the bronze medalist, Abdullah Altuwaini of Kuwait.

Despite his smaller frame, he said that you just “have to go in with the belief that you can succeed even though other competitors are bigger or stronger.”

2. Clement Lim’s timings in the 4×100 Freestyle Relay
In the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay heat, Clement Lim powered Singapore into their first relay final appearance after an astounding final leg split of 50.55 seconds.

Clement overtook Singapore-born Jeremy Bagshaw to finish fourth in the heat and seventh overall to qualify for the final.

In the final later that evening, the 18-year-old bettered his final leg split by 0.2 seconds, surpassing Zach Ong’s split time of 50.48 in 2009 and making it the fastest time ever swum by a Singaporean in a relay.

“The finals with the guys for 4x100m freestyle relay was one of the highlights, because we really gave it our 100 percent,” said Rainer.

3. Amanda Lim’s 50m Freestyle final
Amanda Lim had the busiest Games among the local swimmers, seeing action on all six competition days. She swam a total of 12 races, including three semi-finals and two finals, and was the only other Singaporean who managed to qualify for an individual final. The moment of the tournament however, only came on the last two days in the 50m freestyle.

The national record holder clocked a time of 26.61 seconds in the heats before improving her time to 26.14 in the semi-finals. Amanda was Singapore’s only representative in the evening session of the final day, and the 17-year-old did Singapore proud by clocking a season-best time of 26.05.

Despite her positive showing at the Games, she felt the highlight was the fact that she was back to competition fitness, bearing in mind the upcoming Asian Games in November.

She also singled out her parents whom she says brought her to training every day, waking up at 5.30am.

“I wouldn’t be where I am today if not for them,” said Amanda.

4. Pang Sheng Jun’s semi-final qualification in the sprints
Although Sheng Jun does not specialise in the sprints, he managed to qualify for both the 50m butterfly and breaststroke semi-finals.

Sheng Jun, who specialises in the 200m and 400m individual medley, decided to attempt the 50m butterfly and Breaststroke because only the 200m IM was contested during the Games. The Auckland University of Technology student managed to power his way into the semi-finals of both events.

Ironically, he failed to qualify for the final in his pet event.

5. Singaporeans’ immense support for swimming
Singaporeans came out in full force to support the local swimmers in almost every session of the swimming competition. Tickets were sold out and the evening finals were packed.

Even Dwayne Ho, Faizal Isa, Farhan Shah, and Tabitha Nauser, the Singapore Idol Season 2 contestants, were there to show their support on a couple of occasions.

Said Farhan, “The YOG is the first time I’ve been to an event with global sports participation. It is very interesting to see how the athletes prepare for the competition and react before and after the race — to see them happy or disappointed.”

Clearly not a sports person, the YOG was Dwayne’s first time being at a live sports event.

“I saw everyone getting involved so I decided to be involved as a spectator as well. I only follow the World Cup and don’t follow other sports events. I never thought sports could be so addictive!” said Dwayne.