Story by Dylan Chua/Red Sports, Chan Hua Zheng/Red Sports and REDintern Ryan Lim. Photos by Soh Jun Wei and Chua Kai Yun/Red Sports

Quah Ting Wen powering through her 50m butterfly 'A' final at the 47th Singapore National Age Group Swimming Championships. Though she fell just short of Tao Li's meet record of 26.70s, Ting Wen had the satisfaction of breaking 27 seconds twice in a day. (Photo 1 © Soh Jun Wei/Red Sports)

Quah Ting Wen powering through her 50m butterfly ‘A’ final at the 47th Singapore National Age Group Swimming Championships. Though she fell just short of Tao Li’s meet record of 26.70s, Ting Wen had the satisfaction of breaking 27 seconds twice in a day. (Photo 1 © Soh Jun Wei/Red Sports)

OCBC Aquatic Centre, Thursday, March 17, 2016 — National swimmer Quah Ting Wen, 23, put in an outstanding performance to win the 50 metres butterfly ‘A’ final, on a day where three women’s meet records were set at the Singapura Finance 47th Singapore National Age Group Swimming Championships.

Ting Wen clocked 26.79 seconds in the final, rewriting her personal best of 26.98s which she recorded in the heats just earlier in the day.

The 50m butterfly is not an Olympic event, hence the timings have no bearing on qualification for Rio 2016.

When quizzed about her performance, she said, “I have been trying to break 27 seconds for a long time, so I felt good to be able to do it in the morning. I wasn’t very happy this morning that I only broke it by 0.02 seconds and I was trying to go a bit faster tonight. It is definitely a confidence booster and I feel good and excited for the 100 fly on Saturday.”

Ting Wen’s pre-championships best was 27.02s, clocked at the 28th South-east Asian Games in June 2015. She had also swum a 27.03s in March that same year.

The swimmer who is representing Swimfast Aquatic Club added, “The ‘A’ cuts are definitely the goal. That would be the best option, otherwise we aim to get the ‘B’ cuts as close to ‘A’ as possible. I don’t want to put pressure on myself but I do think that if everything can fall into place and things happen the way they are supposed to then I think I can actually hit some ‘A’ cuts.”

Ting Wen has her sights set on achieving greater feats in the near future. “Short term is definitely to make (it to) Rio. After that the focus will be completely on Rio. Now it is about trying to get as many of us on the team. Long term would be the SEA Games. I remember that there are 50 (metres) strokes events there, and looking at my times last year I think I can actually do something there. It is definitely one of the more fun events,” she commented.

Ting Wen has had prior Olympic experience. It was in Beijing 2008 that she set the current national open 400m individual medley record of 4 minutes 51.25 seconds, and also added a national under-17 mark in the 100m freestyle.

Four local swimmers met the ‘A’ qualifying mark for the Junior Pan-Pacific Championships in the 400m freestyle event, but only two secured qualification. They are Rachel Marjorie Tseng, whose 4:20.28 set a meet record in the 18 years old and over age group, and Chloe Wang who swam a personal best of 4:22.35.

With regards to her swim, Rachel said, “I’m actually quite disappointed with my performance as I was two seconds off my personal best and this was my best shot at hitting the Olympic ‘B’ timing which sadly I did not hit. But I have no regrets as I tried my best and I have the Junior Pan-Pacific Championships to look forward to instead.”

Christie Chue (4:23.87) and Gan Ching Hwee (4:26.29) were the two other swimmers who dipped under the ‘A’ mark, the latter setting a new 13-14 years old age group meet record, and also edging close to Ting Wen’s national under-14 mark of 4:24.73.

Hannah Quek set the third female meet record of the day. The 15-year-old clocked the top local time in the women’s 200m backstroke, finishing in 2:20.32. It bettered her own 15-17 years old age group meet record of 2:21.35 set last year. It also went under the ‘B’ qualifying mark of 2:21.42 for the Junior Pan Pacific meet.

The Singapura Finance 47th Singapore Age Group Swimming Championships continues on Friday, March 18 at 9.30am.

Women’s results – Day 2 (Evening session)

Women 13-14 year olds 50m butterfly
1st Mei Ishihara (JPN) – 28.54s
2nd Georgina Winters – 29.45s
3rd Maho Murakami (JPN) – 29.45s
4th Ho Hui Ting Natalie – 30.30s

Women 15-17 year olds 50m butterfly
1st Mizuki Kurashina (JPN) – 27.77s
2nd Hoong En Qi – 27.97s
3rd Anna Pang – 28.00s

Women 18 year olds & above 50m butterfly
1st Quah Ting Wen – 26.79s
2nd Chan Shi Min Nur Marina – 28.08s
3rd Amanda Lim – 28.69s

Women 13-14 year olds 400m freestyle
1st Miyu Namba (JPN) – 4:25.41
2nd Gan Ching Hwee – 4:26.29 (meet record)
3rd Georgina Winters – 4:34.80

Women 15-17 year olds 400m freestyle
1st Chisayo Nakajima (JPN) – 4:19.14
2nd Kinuko Mochizuki (JPN) – 4:19.50
3rd Chun Mun Ee Christie May – 4:23.87

Women 18 year olds & above 400m freestyle
1st Nattanan Jungkrajung (THA) – 4:17.56
2nd Khoo Cai Lin (MAS) – 4:18.42
2nd Rachel Marjorie Tseng – 4:20.28 (meet record)

Womens 13-14 year olds 50m breaststroke
1st Mei Ishihara (JPN) – 34.39s
2nd Charity Lien – 34.41s
3rd Nana Akao (JPN) – 35.38s

Womens 15-17 year olds 50m breaststroke
1st Rina Inaba (JPN) – 33.16s
2nd Chun Mun Ee Christie May – 33.92s
3rd Jade Lim – 34.17s

Womens 18 year olds & above 50m breaststroke
1st Micah Lawrence – 31.68s
2nd Phee Jing En (MAS) – 31.97s
3rd Huang Wen Chi (TPE) – 32.28s
5th Tam An Tian Amanda – 34.18s

Womens 13-14 year olds 200m backstroke
1st Mikella Schuettler – 2:28.51
2nd Elizabeth Khoo – 2:29.50
3rd Charity Lien – 2:30.22

Womens 15-17 year olds 200m backstroke
1st Maho Sekiguchi (JPN) – 2:16.84
2nd Tamami Katagiri (JPN) – 2:19.89
3rd Hannah Quek – 2:20.32 (meet record)

Womens 18 year olds & above 200m backstroke
1st Ozturk Sonnele (GER) – 2:13.99
2nd An Hsu (TPE) – 2:15.29
3rd Chantal Liew – 2:27.03