Quah Zheng Wen won a total of three gold, two silver and one bronze medal at the 2nd Asian Youth Games. (Archive photo © Lim Yong Teck/Red Sports)
Nanjing Olympic Sports Centre Natatorium, Nanjing, China, August 19-23, 2013 – Singapore’s swimmers emerged from the five-day competition at the 2nd Asian Youth Games with a haul of five gold, 10 silver and two bronze medals. 19 personal bests were recorded and three national age group records were broken, as every swimmer in the 15-strong squad advanced from their heats at least once.
Their tally of 5-10-2 is second only to Korea Republic’s 16-7-7.
Quah Zheng Wen was the most bemedaled swimmer of the meet with six podium finishes. He won golds in the boys’ 200 metres backstroke, freestyle and individual medley, while finishing second in the 200m freestyle and 4x100m freestyle relay, and third in the 4x100m medley relay.
Zheng Wen, 16, who swam at last year’s Olympic Games in London and has qualified for four individual events at this December’s Southeast Asian Games, also clocked an excellent time of 56.68 seconds in the lead-off backstroke leg in the medley relay. It would have been not only good enough to win the individual 100m backstroke gold this year – Indonesia’s Ricky Anggawidjaja won it in 58.42s – but also four years ago at the Games’ first edition. Kuwait’s Abdullah Althuwaini won the gold medal then in a time of 56.71s, an era when non-textile swimsuits were not banned.
Darren Lim, still only 14 but clocking times which belie his age, bagged four medals, including a gold medal in his pet event, the 50m freestyle. He was earmarked to break Ang Peng Siong’s 31-year-old national record of 22.69s ever since his sensational swim of 22.73s at June’s National Championships, and swam a time of 23.09s in Nanjing to become the fastest youth swimmer in Asia.
Darren also won silver in the 50m butterfly with a personal best, and bagged a silver and bronze in the relays.
Samantha Yeo won Singapore’s other gold medal in the girls’ 50m breaststroke, and inched closer to Roanne Ho’s national open and under-17 mark of 32.44s with her 32.56s PB. She also joined Zheng Wen as the only other non-Korean swimmer with at least five total medals, when she won four silver medals.
They came in the 100m and 200m breaststroke, as well as both relays. They were part of a punishing 17-race schedule for the 16-year-old, who had competed at the 15th FINA World Championships just two weeks before.
Marina Chan also clinched four silver medals, including two in the 50 and 100m freestyle. She bettered her PB in the latter event by half a second to 57.56s, and in the shorter race, had two PBs in the semi-finals and final to move past Mylene Ong into second place in the year’s rankings.
The ever-versatile Meagan Lim swam in five individual events – the same number as Samantha – and came away with a silver medal in the 100m butterfly. Christopher Cheong, who came to prominence at April’s National Schools meet when he trailed national record holder Lionel Khoo into second place by mere decimals of a second, came away with an individual and team bronze in the 100m breaststroke and medley relay and clocked two PBs in the 50m breaststroke.
Three national age group records were broken. Hoong En Qi, 13, was a finalist in both the 50m freestyle and butterfly. In the latter event, she broke her under-14 record of 28.61s with her 28.30s swim in the semi-finals, before lowering it by another tenth of a second in the final.
The girls’ 4x100m freestyle relay team, consisting of Samantha, Rachel Tseng, En Qi and Marina broke the year-old under-17 record of 3:56.55 by clocking 3:54.67 in the final to finish second. Rachel, Samantha and Marina were in the squad which held the previous record, and to go further back, the latter two were also part of the team which held the 2011 record of 3:57.24.
The Asian Youth Games also gave a glimpse of how our regional rivals were shaping up for the SEA Games in Myanmar at the year’s end. Malaysia’s Lim Ching Hwang, a Singapore Sports School student, will be one to watch in the freestyle events. He won a 200m freestyle gold in 1:50.81 – 0.39s off his PB – and had two silvers in the 50 and 100m freestyle. Ching Hwang also had a 4x100m freestyle relay bronze, where he anchored the team in a 50.44s-split.
Vietnam’s Nguyen Thi Anh Vien, who won 11 gold medals at June’s SEA Age Group meet, had no less modest of a tally with three golds and one silver at the AYG. She finished first in the girls’ 50m and 200m backstroke and 200m IM, and second in the 100m backstroke.
Her 200m backstroke time of 2:12.65 is over three seconds faster than the SEA Games record of 2:15.73, while her 2:15.09 in the 200m IM would have been the second fastest in SEA Games history.
The class of 2013 have outdone their predecessors. Besides edging out the 2009 batch which had a medal tally of 5-2-5, they managed it with fewer swimmers. In 2009, hosts Singapore sent a squad of 23.
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