Story by Arissa Pang, Lim Yong Teck and Erwin Wong/Red Sports. Photos by Lim Yong Teck, Clara Yuan and Jerald Ang/Red Sports
Quah Ting Wen’s timing of 27.12 seconds in the women’s 50m butterfly event earned her a nomination for the upcoming 28th SEA Games. (Photo 1 © Lim Yong Teck/Red Sports)
OCBC Aquatic Centre, Wednesday, March 18, 2015 — Quah Ting Wen secured her spot in the 28th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games when she clocked 27.12 seconds to top the women’s 50m butterfly field in the Singapura Finance 46th Singapore National Age Group (SNAG) Swimming Championships.
Based on the SEA Games selection policy stipulated by the Singapore Swimming Association, the two fastest swimmers of each individual event during the qualifying window will be selected for the upcoming Games. The qualifying window lasts from September 21, 2014, to March 22, 2015.
Fellow compatriot Tao Li, who clocked 26.28s at the Incheon Asian Games in September 2014, will be nominated alongside the 22-year-old Ting Wen.
Ting Wen’s time was a personal best, as was Hoong En Qi’s when she finished third in 27.50s. It is also a new meet record for 15-17 year olds, bettering Nur Marina Chan’s previous record of 27.91s.
En Qi, who turns 16 in September this year, said, “It was a good start when I edged off the first 25m. I felt that my plunge is stronger as compared to my swim, and that gave me the advantage in my first 25m. But I had to hold on to Ting Wen’s pace after the turn. I’m very glad I’m able to hit my personal best and hope to do better.”
The 15-year-old has five remaining events and is looking to qualify for the SEA Games in the 100m freestyle and 4x100m freestyle relay.
In the women’s 200m backstroke super final, 15-year-old Hannah Quek set a new meet record for 15-17 year olds with a timing of 2:21.35, which was 2.48 seconds ahead of Chantal Liew’s previous meet record. The latter, who swam in the lane adjacent to Hannah’s, had to settle for second place in 2:24.07.
Chantal and Hannah have qualified for the SEA Games based on their respective times of 2:19.87 and 2:20.49 at the Singapore National Swimming Championships in December 2014, which places them as the top two swimmers during the qualifying period.
Christie Chue and Quah Jing Wen both clocked 200m individual medley personal bests of 2:21.18 and 2:21.89 respectively, but fell just short of supplanting Meagan Lim (2:20.87) and Samantha Yeo (2:21.01) in their bid for SEA Games qualification. The latter two swimmers are based in America and clocked those times at the ARENA Pro Swim Series in Austin.
Nevertheless, both 14-year-olds met the ‘A’ qualifying mark of 2:21.91 for the World Junior Championships to be held in Singapore in August.
For more details of the event, go to: www.facebook.com/swimsnag
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