Asian Games Swimming: Team Singapore win two medals and set three national and age-group records

By Erwin Wong/Red Sports

Team Singapore’s swimmers completed their Asian Games campaign with one gold and silver medal each, national and age-group records in three different events, and eleven personal best timings.

20-year-old Tao Li was the star performer with her virtuoso results. She won Singapore’s first medal of the Games when she finished second in the 100 metres Butterfly on the opening day of the swimming competition. Tao Li’s time of 58.24 seconds was a season’s best.

She also claimed Singapore’s first gold medal of the Games when she defended her 50m Butterfly title that she won four years ago at the Doha Asiad. Tao Li’s pre-Games national record of 26.64s fell in the heats when she clocked 26.52, the joint-fastest time of the round.

Tao Li then powerfully beat out the challenges of her Chinese and Japanese rivals to win the gold in another national record of 26.10, the fastest long-course time by an Asian this year. This came on the final night of competition.

Sandwiched between the pair of medal-winning performances was her personal best result in the 50m Backstroke. Her heat time of 28.91s advanced her to the final, where she finished sixth.

Rainer Ng set the other national record in his 50m Backstroke heat as well. The 18-year-old Youth Olympic Games silver medalist in this event had set a new national mark of 26.37 during the heats of the inaugural meet in August, and bettered it by 0.05s at this Asiad.

Rainer also twice set a PB in the 200m Backstroke. He qualified for the Games when he swam 2 minutes 4.97 seconds at June’s national championships, and bettered that with his 2:04.95 and 2:04.06 performances in the heats and final respectively.

Rainer’s 57.08 in the 4 x 100m medley relay final was the first time he had swam faster than coach David Lim’s 1988 100m national 100m backstroke record of 57.34 in a non-textile swimsuit.

Samantha Yeo, the second youngest athlete in the Team Singapore contingent, completed her sweep of the national under-14 breaststroke records by breaking the only one she did not previously own. She swam a 33.53 in the 50m Breaststroke heats to break Roanne Ho’s 2006 mark of 33.74.

Samantha also swam the 100 and 200m and was about 0.3 and 1.7 seconds off her under-14 marks.

A national record in the men’s 4x200m Freestyle relay was taken away, even though none of the four swimmers left their starting blocks earlier than allowed. Lead-off swimmer Danny Yeo was adjudged to have moved before the whistle. The final proceeded and Singapore’s fourth position and new national record of 7:29.70 were annulled with the disqualification.

Nevertheless, there are positives to take away from the result, most notably the three fastest 200m Freestyle relay splits in the local record books, by Pang Sheng Jun (1:51.47), Danny Yeo (1:51.93) and Clement Lim (1:52.02).

Danny broke his individual 200m Freestyle PB by nearly a full second in 1:51.07, and is joined in 1:51 territory by Clement Lim, also for the first time. They are just the third and fourth swimmers in Singapore’s history to swim this event quicker than 1 minute and 52 seconds.

Personal bests were also set by Andrew Lim (50, 100m Breaststroke) and Shana Lim (100m Backstroke).

Foreign-based swimmers Nicholas Tan, Quah Ting Wen and Lynette Lim did not perform too well. Nicholas was off his season-leads in the 50 and 100m Butterfly, and swam almost one second slower than his 100m Freestyle season’s best, during the 4x100m Freestyle relay final.

Ting Wen set a season’s best in the 200m Freestyle but was inconsistent in the 100, clocking splits of 57.22 and 59.06 in the relays, as well as a 58.55 in the individual event.

Distance swimmer Lynette qualified for the 400m Freestyle final, finishing eighth. However, her times in the 200, 400 and 800m Freestyle were two, three and 17 seconds off her respective season’s bests.

In the relays, the female teams did well to finish fifth in the three direct-entry finals. Their male compatriots also gave a good account of themselves by qualifying for all three finals.

Team Singapore 16th Asian Games swimming team (male)

Team Singapore 16th Asian Games swimming team (female)