Story by Iman Hashim/Red Sports and REDintern Ryan Lim. Photos by Chua Kai Yun and Soh Jun Wei/Red Sports
Glen Lim, 14, starting off strong in his 400m freestyle event. He finished second with a timing of 4:09.95, breaking the long-standing national under-14 record of 4:10.68 set by Sng Ju Wei in 1994. (Photo 1 © Chua Kai Yun/Red Sports)
OCBC Aquatic Centre, Thursday, March 17, 2016 — One national age-group and six men’s meet records fell as the second day for senior competitors in the Singapura Finance 47th Singapore National Age Group (SNAG) Swimming Championships got underway.
Glen Lim, 13, of Swimfast Aquatic Club (SAC) made the headlines again as he claimed his second national under-14 record in as many days, clocking 4 minutes 9.95 seconds in the 400 metres freestyle. His timing broke Sng Ju Wei’s 4:10.68 mark which had stood for nearly 22 years. Before Glen took to the pool, Ju Wei’s mark, set on 27 May 1994, was the longest-standing record in the men’s open, under-17 and under-14 books.
In the process, he also met the 4:10.87 ‘B’ cut for the Junior Pan Pacific Championships to be held this August in Maui, Hawaii. The Secondary Two student from Raffles Institution had rewritten the national under-14 1500m freestyle mark just one day earlier.
On his latest feat, Glen commented, “It feels like a miracle for me, because I am not very good in this event. I was focusing on trying to get a PB, and not to burn out for the first few laps, which is very crucial for the event. I wasn’t thinking about the record, I was just aiming for a satisfactory result.”
He added that he may put more effort in training for this event in the future, as not many swimmers favour long distance events – hence it would put him at a greater advantage.
Even though Glen claimed the honours for the national under-14 record, he had in fact lost to Jonathan Tan in the same race. The latter finished exactly two seconds faster (4:07.95) to break the meet record for 13-14 year-olds set by Darren Chua in 2014. Jonathan’s timing means he also met the ‘B’ cut for the Junior Pan Pacific meet, but marginally missed the ‘A’ qualifying time by a mere 0.1 seconds.
It was a tremendous improvement from Jonathan, who just turned 14 six days ago, as his previous personal best in the event was the 4:10.22 that he clocked in the morning heats.
More impressively, it was the Elite Swim Club (ESC) representative’s second meet record of the evening as he rewrote the 50m butterfly mark for 13-14 year-olds earlier, clocking an eye-catching 25.67s.
His 400m freestyle and 50m butterfly times place him as the sixth fastest local swimmer this year in each event.
Thanking his coaches and friends for supporting him, Jonathan said, “I will continue to train hard and improve. Because of my coaches and everyone around me, I managed to do better. (Although I missed out on the national U-14 record by six days), I am actually ok with it – for me a record is always a bonus. As long as I do my best and hit my PB, I am already very happy.”
He also paid tribute to fellow competitor Glen. “It is fun. We are competitors, but we are also friends. We encourage each other, we train well, we help each other to do well,” he remarked.
It was indeed an eventful evening in the pool as four other men’s meet records were broken – Dylan Koo (24.73s) in the 50m butterfly for 15-17 year-olds, Samuel Khoo (29.12s) and Lionel Khoo (28.44s) in the 50m breaststroke for 15-17 year-olds and the 18-and-over category respectively, and Quah Zheng Wen (2:01.42) in the 200m backstroke 18-and-over category.
Zheng Wen’s timing failed to meet the ‘A’ cut for the Rio Olympics, although he met the ‘B’ qualifying time yet again after clocking 2:00.55 in last year’s South-east Asian Games.
Zheng Wen is already headed to Rio, though, as he has met the Olympic ‘A’ cut in the 100m backstroke, 100m butterfly and 200m butterfly.
The SNAG championships will go on every day until this Sunday, March 20, at the OCBC Aquatic Centre.
Boys/Men Results – Seniors Day 2
Boys 13-14 50m Butterfly
1st Jonathan Tan — 25.67 seconds (Meet Record)
2nd Tokuma Nishino (JPN) — 26.52
3rd Mikkel Lee — 26.78
4th Soh Chai Jin — 27.27
Men 15-17 50m Butterfly
1st Dylan Koo Longhai — 24.73 seconds (Meet Record)
2nd Kohtaroh Horiai (JPN) — 24.76
3rd Donovan Lee Chuen Jin — 25.62
4th Ong Jung Yi — 25.64
Men 18 & Over 50m Butterfly
1st Chang Kuo Chi (TPE) — 24.54 seconds
2nd Yannick Lebherz (GER) — 25.20
2nd Christian Diener (GER) — 25.20
4th Teong Tzen Wei — 25.72
5th Nicholas Soh — 26.08
6th Nathan Wong — 26.37
Boys 13-14 400m Freestyle
1st Jonathan Tan — 4:07.95 (Meet Record)
2nd Glen Lim Jun Wei — 4:09.95 (National U-14 Record)
3rd Luke Tan — 4:19.83
Men 15-17 400m Freestyle
1st Kaiki Furuhata (JPN) — 4:00.88
2nd Yoshihide Katoku (JPN) — 4:04.38
3rd Ikuta Fujiwara (JPN) — 4:04.54
Men 18 & Over 400m Freestyle
1st Welson Sim (MAS) — 3:50.33
2nd An Ting Yao (TPE) — 3:54.57
3rd Danny Yeo Kai Quan — 3:56.10
Boys 13-14 50m Breaststroke
1st Goh Jeng Yee — 32.54 seconds
2nd Leow Li Shen — 32.64
3rd Nicholas Cheong Ee Seng — 32.67
Men 15-17 50m Breaststroke
1st Samuel Khoo — 29.12 seconds (Meet Record)
2nd Brilliant Chua — 29.73
3rd Adam Tan Kai Jun — 30.04
Men 18 & Over 50m Breaststroke
1st Wu Chun-Feng (TPE) — 28.11 seconds
2nd Kevin Cordes (USA) — 28.14
3rd Lionel Khoo Chien Yin — 28.44 (Meet Record)
Boys 13-14 200m Backstroke
1st Owen Teo Bo En — 2:15.79
2nd Collin Schuster — 2:17.68
3rd Bertrand Cher — 2:19.30
Men 15-17 200m Backstroke
1st Shuto Endo (JPN) — 2:03.36
2nd Francis Fong Jia Yi — 2:04.85
3rd Ko Nagano (JPN) — 2:10.19
4th Ethan Ong Wei Zhen — 2:11.72
Men 18 & Over 200m Backstroke
1st Christian Diener (GER) — 1:59.19
2nd Tullius Rexford (USA) — 1:59.52
3rd Yannick Lebherz (GER) — 1:59.65
4th Quah Zheng Wen — 2:01.42 (Meet Record)
6th Malcolm Low Wei Yang — 2:06.77
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