Story by REDintern Carissa Tan and Erwin Wong/Red Sports. Photos by Lim Yong Teck and Clara Yuan/Red Sports
Quah Zheng Wen rewrote the men’s 100m freestyle national record with a timing of 49.89 seconds, becoming the first Singaporean to swim the event in under 50 seconds. (Photo 1 © Lim Yong Teck/Red Sports)
OCBC Aquatic Centre, Wednesday, March 18, 2015 — Quah Zheng Wen, fresh from breaking a national open mark the night before, rewrote yet another at the Singapura Finance 46th Singapore National Age Group (SNAG) Swimming Championships.
Zheng Wen, 18, became the first Singaporean to swim the 100m freestyle in under 50 seconds when he clocked a time of 49.89 seconds in the morning heats. The previous mark was 50.05s set by Joseph Schooling at the 20th Commonwealth Games in July 2014. Zheng Wen had also taken down his own 100m backstroke national open record the previous evening.
His efforts in the morning qualified him for the all-important evening final, from which spots for June’s Southeast Asian (SEA) Games would be won and lost. Zheng Wen failed to go sub-50s again, but did enough to hold off Danny Yeo and finished first to clinch a spot in the individual 100m freestyle.
His time of 50.19s just edged Danny’s 50.25s, which was a new personal best for the latter. Joseph’s 50.12s at January’s ARENA Pro Swim Series in Austin handed the America-based swimmer the other individual spot.
“It was a pretty intense line-up for 100m freestyle. My performance in the morning was much better as compared to the evening,” said Zheng Wen.
“I felt that 100m isn’t the main event for me. I focus more on the 200m and 400m. If I can do well for long distance, I’m sure I can do equally well for 200m. All I can do now is to maintain my fitness level and continue to improve and hit my personal best. It was a confidence booster for me in this event, even though I felt that I’m not confident and experienced enough,” added the Swimfast Aquatic Club swimmer.
As Zheng Wen rightly pointed out, the 100m freestyle super final was packed with household names. Clement Lim posted another sub-51s swim to finish third behind Zheng Wen and Danny, while Teo Zhen Ren, Lukas-Ming Menkhoff and Pang Sheng Jun all followed with new personal bests.
Darren Chua, who turns 15 on March 20, got in on the act as well with a new personal best of 52.02s while swimming in the boys’ 15-17 years old final. That was within the ‘A’ qualifying mark of 52.13s for the World Junior Championships to be held in Singapore in August this year.
Joseph and Zheng Wen have now also secured spots in the SEA Games 4x100m freestyle relay team. Danny (50.25s), Clement (50.61s), Darren Lim (50.72s) and Zach Ong (51.75s) are in the running for the two remaining slots.
In the men’s 100m breaststroke, Lionel Khoo turned the tables on Christopher Cheong after the latter finished ahead of him in the 200m breaststroke final the night before, and rewrote his national open mark to boot.
This time, Lionel took the victory with a time of 1 minute 3.25 seconds, which was his fastest time in nearly three years. Christopher finished second in a new PB of 1:03.58. Both swimmers will be selected for the SEA Games by virtue of being the fastest two swimmers during the qualifying window.
“Christopher’s breaststroke is really strong. but I’m still satisfied with my performance today,” said Lionel, who represents Swimfast Aquatic Club. “I hope that I can hit my personal best in Spain next week. I hope to create a strong reputation for the future batch.”
Samuel Khoo improved on his personal best by a massive 1.17 seconds to take third in 1:04.26. That broke his meet record for 15-17 year olds set in the morning heats. The 15 year old is now the fourth fastest local swimmer in the all-time rankings.
His time met the ‘A’ mark for the World Junior Championships, while Brilliant Chua’s fourth-placed finish and PB of 1:05.15 fulfilled the ‘B’ mark.
Bryant Low broke Benedict Boon’s meet record for 15-17 year olds in the men’s 800m freestyle when he clocked a time of 8:47.35. The previous mark of 8:50.18 was set in 2013.
“For the first 400m, I was trying to follow the person beside me, (Oh) Yao Jie. After the first 400m, I lost him a bit. In the fifth and sixth hundred (metres), I slowed down a lot so I had to come back in the seventh and eighth to try to break the record,” said Bryant, whose next objective after this meet is to train for the National Inter-School championships, where he will represent Anglo-Chinese School (Independent).
Yao Jie was the fastest Singapore overall with his time of 8:33.50, while Timothy Tan slashed more than 43 seconds off the 800m freestyle meet record for the 13-14 year olds when he clocked a time of 8:55.43.
This event will not be held at the SEA Games in June.
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