By Zaher Zee. With additional reporting by Erwin Wong
Quah Zheng Wen (left) set a new short-course 100m IM national mark of 55.21s. He and Christopher Cheong teamed up with Tao Li and Amanda Lim to finish seventh in the 4x50m mixed medley relay. (Photo 1 © Elvin Liang/Red Sports)
Singapore Sports School, Tuesday, November 5, 2013 – Quah Zheng Wen, 17, set a new national short-course mark of 55.21 seconds when he qualified sixth-fastest for the 100m IM final at the 2013 FINA Swimming World Cup. His time broke Bryan Tay’s national mark of 56.59s which had stood since April 2008. In the evening final, Zheng Wen finished eighth in 55.77s.
In all, Singapore swimmers made it to four finals, with Rachel Marjorie Tseng the youngest Singaporean finalist at age 15. Rachel was eighth in the 800m freestyle final with a time of 8 minutes 45.17 seconds.
In the men’s 400m individual medley final, Pang Sheng Jun, 21, finished eighth with a time of 4:19.96.
“It was a really good experience for me and overall, I think I had a good swim, considering that we didn’t taper for this World Cup meet. I’m definitely aiming for a medal at the upcoming SEA Games,” said Sheng Jun.
The biggest miss of the day for Singapore had to be Tao Li’s split-second lapse which saw her fail to qualify for the women’s 100m butterfly final. The 23-year-old missed out on the final by 0.01s when she clocked 58.97 to finish ninth-fastest.
“I went all out for the first 50m of my butterfly event but then I just started to relax for the second part, so that I could save it for tonight. It’s not about my not being able to do it, I was just too relaxed at the end,” said Tao Li wistfully.
However, she made up for the disappointed when she teamed up with Quah Zheng Wen, Christopher Cheong and Amanda Lim in the 4x50m mixed medley relay final to finish seventh in 1:44.94, ahead of China.
After the Singapore leg, the FINA Swimming World Cup will then move to Tokyo, Japan from November 9 to 10 before finishing up in Beijing, China on November 14.
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