Story by REDintern Nicole Lum and Erwin Wong/Red Sports. Photos by Lim Yong Teck and Clara Yuan/Red Sports
Amanda Lim (left) and Quah Ting Wen share a moment before the women’s 50m freestyle final. Both swimmers secured qualification for this event at the upcoming 28th SEA Games by virtue of being the two fastest swimmers during the qualifying window. (Photo 1 © Lim Yong Teck/Red Sports)
OCBC Aquatic Centre, Sunday, March 22, 2015 — National swimmer Quah Ting Wen qualified for her fifth and sixth individual events for the upcoming Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Singapore at the Singapura Finance 46th Singapore National Age Group (SNAG) Swimming Championships.
The SEA Games selection policy stipulated by the Singapore Swimming Association states that the fastest two swimmers of each individual event during the qualifying window will be selected for the Games. This SNAG meet is the final qualifying meet of the window.
In the women’s 50m freestyle, Ting Wen set a new meet record for the 18 years old and over when she touched home in 25.57s. She broke Amanda Lim’s record that was set just last year by an impressive 0.4s.
The 22-year-old was very happy with her performance as she managed to come close to her personal best (PB) of 25.43s that was registered during the 2009 Asian Youth Games, when she won the gold medal. In fact, the time is Ting Wen’s fastest since non-textile swimsuits were banned from 2010 onwards.
“It has been a while since I’ve gone below 26 seconds for the 50m freestyle. The last time that I did was in December during the Singapore National Swimming Championships when I swam it in 25.88s,” she said.
However, Ting Wen’s main event is not the 50m freestyle. “For me, it’s only a fun, one-off event. But it won’t hurt to do just one more,” said Ting Wen, who focuses more on the longer distances like 100m and 200m for the freestyle events.
“A 50m freestyle race is a very close race. Hence, little details like each stroke, the dive and the underwater exit count,” explained Ting Wen, when asked about her remarkable swim that saw her hold her breath all the way to the end. “I was tapered and rested enough to do that.”
The 25.57s effort brings Ting Wen to the top of the rankings for the 50m freestyle. Just behind her is Amanda Lim, who swam a 25.75s in the SNAG super final and has a 25.66s to her name during the qualifying window. Hence by virtue of being the top two swimmers, Ting Wen and Amanda will swim the 50m freestyle in the Games.
Ting Wen concluded the meet with a victory in the 100m butterfly super final. She clocked a time of 1 minute 0.14 seconds, which went close to her PB of 59.92s. The conclusion of the qualifying window saw four-time SEA Games 100m butterfly gold medalist Tao Li as the top qualifier in 59.08s, with Ting Wen in second.
Ting Wen has qualified to represent Singapore at June’s SEA Games in six individual events – 50m, 100m and 200m butterfly; 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle. She has also guaranteed spots in the 4x100m freestyle, 4x200m freestyle and 4x100m medley relays.
This is the exact same set of events which Ting Wen swam at the last SEA Games in 2013, save for the 50m butterfly, which was not contested then.
She has a total of nine gold, 12 silver and three bronze medals at the SEA Games since she made her debut at the biennial meet 10 years ago.
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