SEA Games Swimming: Singapore emerge as kings and queens of pool with best gold haul since 1975

By Erwin Wong/Red Sports

Singapore’s swimmers splashed their way to 17 gold, 9 silver and 13 bronze medals at the 26th South-east Asian Games in Palembang, Indonesia. It was the most number of swimming golds won at the biennial games since 1975, when Singapore emerged first in 17 events as well. The record gold medal haul by a Singapore swimming team is 21, at the then-SEAP Games in Singapore two years before that.

The class of 2011 improved on their predecessors’ performance at the 2009 Laos Games, when the swimming medal tally was 14-8-11. Although this could be attributed to the fact that three non-Olympic events, namely the 50m backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly, were each added to the men’s and women’s list, Singapore slightly increased their gold medal-winning percentage. The 2011 team won 44.7% of the total number of swimming golds on offer, up from 43.8% in 2009.

Women’s Team
Despite the absence of Quah Ting Wen and Lynette Lim, key swimmers from the 2009 squad who won eight gold medals between them, the 2011 women’s team won nine events to finish ahead of their regional rivals. Tao Li led the gold medal charge for Singapore by getting on the top step of the podium seven times to emerge as the most bemedalled athlete of the Games. The 21-year-old, a two-time Asian Games champion and an Olympic finalist, won the 50m, 100m and 200m butterfly, the 100m backstroke, and the three relays to be the first Singaporean athlete since Joscelin Yeo in 1995 to win seven gold medals at the SEA Games.

Tao Li’s bid to match Joscelin’s nine golds in 1993 fell short when she pulled out of the 50m backstroke and finished third in the 200m backstroke. But in spite of a punishing schedule that saw her swim 12 races in six days, Tao Li still found it within herself to set two Games records, one national open record, and win her pet event, the 50m butterfly, by a yawning margin of more than one second.

Amanda Lim cemented her position as the fastest woman swimmer in the region by defending her 50m freestyle crown and setting a new Games record to boot. Shana Lim won the team’s other individual gold medal in the 50m backstroke.

The 4x100m freestyle, 4x200m freestyle and 4x100m medley relay teams were peerless and repeated their three-win sweep from 2009. They won by a total of 21 seconds and clocked the fastest times by a Singaporean team in textile swimsuits. Non-textile suits were banned in January 2010.

The three swimmers below the age of 17 turned in commendable performances. Koh Hui Yu stepped into Ting Wen’s and Lynette’s shoes and was the lead-off swimmer in the two freestyle relays. She clocked personal bests in both races and smashed her 200m freestyle PB by nearly a full second. The 16-year-old also won two individual bronzes.

SEA Games debutant Meagan Lim, 15, took part in five individual events and although she finished fourth three times, Meagan set three personal bests. Samantha Yeo, 14, was beaten by the Malaysian pair of Siow Yi Ting and Christina Loh in the three breaststroke events, but managed to win her first individual medal in the 200m breaststroke and also clocked a personal best in the 100m breaststroke. Samantha’s split in the medley relay was also the fastest by a Singaporean since Nicolette Teo’s 1:09.85 in the 2007 SEA Games.

Team Singapore 26th SEA Games Swimming team (Female)

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