Story by Carissa Tan and Erwin Wong/Red Sports. Photos by Lim Yong Teck, Matthew Lau and Clara Yuan/Red Sports
Quah Zheng Wen (bottom) shares a moment with Pang Sheng Jun after the men’s 400m individual medley final. Zheng Wen continued his sizzling form which he has displayed throughout this meet by setting a new age group meet record with a time of 4:27.50. (Photo 1 © Lim Yong Teck/Red Sports)
OCBC Aquatic Centre, Friday, March 20, 2015 — Quah Zheng Wen put up yet another stellar performance at the Singapura Finance 46th Singapore National Age Group (SNAG) Swimming Championships, as he qualified for the upcoming Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in another two events – the 100m butterfly and 400m individual medley – and smashed the meet records in both.
Zheng Wen, 18, broke Samuel Koh’s 100m butterfly meet record of 57.97s for the 18 years old and over with a 55.64s swim in the morning heats. He improved on the meet record, as well as his three-month-old personal best (PB) of 53.63s, by clocking a time of 53.42s in the super final to finish well ahead of the field.
Zheng Wen, as well as Asian Games gold medalist Joseph Schooling (51.76s), have the two fastest times in the SEA Games qualifying window and will thus be nominated for the Games.
Danny Yeo put in a good shift to finish second behind Zheng Wen in a new PB of 55.24s. It made him the fifth fastest ever local swimmer in this event.
Zheng Wen continued his winning streak in the 400m individual medley super final held about half an hour after his 100m butterfly final. The morning heats saw the national record holder marginally fail to break Pang Sheng Jun’s meet record of 4:29.64, with his 4:29.75. He managed to do so in the final, clocking a time of 4:27.50 to finish first.
This gave Zheng Wen the fastest time in the Games qualifying window. Sheng Jun will be nominated as well, after he finished second in 4:28.01. It rewrote his previous PB of 4:28.50 which had stood since June 8, 2010.
Maximillian Ang, 14, rewrote the meet record for 13-14 year olds twice. He swam a 4:48.33 in the morning and broke it again in the evening with a significantly-faster timing of 4:43.08 to finish fifth in the super final, shocking even himself.
It bettered his PB of 4:45.66 set at the National Time Trials last month. That time would have been a new national under-14 record, but with Maximillian celebrating his 14th birthday just a day ago on March 19, his latest performance will not enter the national record books.
When asked about his performance, Maxmillian stated that he felt excited and shocked as he felt extremely negative before the race. He attributed this to his performance in the morning heats which was in his opinion, not up to his standard.
Maximillian will be participating in two more events at this meet. He will swim the 200m IM on Saturday, March 21 and the 400m free on Sunday, March 22, to finish with a total of nine events at these championships.
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