Story by Iman Hashim/Red Sports and REDintern Ryan Lim. Photos by Chua Kai Yun and Soh Jun Wei/Red Sports.

Glen Lim, 13, in action during the 1500m freestyle at the 47th Singapore National Age Group Swimming Championships. He rewrote his own national under-14 record with a timing of 16:36.38. (Photo 1 © Chua Kai Yun/Red Sports)

Glen Lim, 13, in action during the 1500m freestyle timed finals at the 47th Singapore National Age Group Swimming Championships. He rewrote his own national under-14 record with a timing of 16:36.38. (Photo 1 © Chua Kai Yun/Red Sports)

OCBC Aquatic Centre, Wednesday, March 16, 2016 — The Singapura Finance 47th Singapore National Age Group Swimming Championships resumed with the 11-12 year-olds and senior competitors taking to the pool for the women’s 800 metres freestyle and men’s 1500m freestyle timed finals.

Among the male swimmers, 13-year-old Glen Lim of Swimfast Aquatic Club (SAC) recorded the most noteworthy swim of the night when he set a new national under-14 record in the 1500m freestyle with a timing of 16 minutes 36.38 seconds. He rewrote his own previous mark of 16:39.73, set at the National Time Trials in January earlier this year.

In the process, the Secondary Two student from Raffles Institution also erased Michael Yong’s 16:44.35 meet record for 13-14 year-olds, set in 2014.

Glen, who is turning 14 on March 28, also holds the national under-14 800m freestyle record of 8:40.27, swum last month at the National Time Trials. That broke Olympian Sng Ju Wei’s record which had stood for nearly 22 years.

Gathering his thoughts on his latest feat, he remarked, “I feel glad, and I will be looking to break more records. The race was okay, really tiring. It is actually very stressful swimming next to a senior swimmer, especially when they are your friends. The pressure is on when they overtake you and you start to panic.”

“The strategy was just to swim normally like in training – to keep your own pace and not be distracted by others. I just try to imagine that I am swimming alone in the pool,” he added.

Moving forward, Glen, a distance freestyle specialist, is currently aiming to qualify for the Junior Pan Pacific Championships held in August this year in Maui, Hawaii. The ‘B’ qualifying times for the 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle events are 4:10.87, 8:35.40 and 16:32.94 respectively.

Meanwhile, national swimmer Pang Sheng Jun, 23, of SAC failed to meet the Olympic ‘B’ qualifying time of 15:46.79 for the 1500m freestyle when he clocked 16:12.34. His timing was also far off his 15:49.56 personal best.

Sheng Jun has already met the Olympic ‘B’ qualifying times for the 400m freestyle and 400m individual medley with his swims during last year’s South-east Asian Games.

Ephraim Tan, 12, who was awarded the Most Valuable Swimmer for junior boys last week, won his 12th gold medal of the championships when he finished first among 11-12 year olds in the 1500m freestyle in 18:31.49.

The action in the pool will continue from March 17 until March 20 at the OCBC Aquatic Centre.

Boys/Men Results – Seniors Day 1

Boys 11-12 1500m Freestyle
1st Ephraim Tan — 18:31.49
2nd Christian Low Tze Hang — 18:47.11
3rd Terence Ong Yi Hao — 18:52.64

Boys 13-14 1500m Freestyle
1st Glen Lim Jun Wei — 16:36.38 (New National U-14 Record; New Meet Record)
2nd Jonathan Tan — 16:47.48
3rd Collin Schuster — 17:27.83

Men 15-17 1500m Freestyle
1st Kaiki Furuhata (Japan) — 15:42.01
2nd Yoshihide Katoku (Japan) — 15:57.33
3rd Ikki Imoto (Japan) — 16:04.78
6th Ong Zhong Qing Erasmus — 17:00.54
7th Low Zi Xuan Bryant — 17:01.18
10th Azri Azman — 17:11.91

Men 18 & Over 1500m Freestyle
1st Cho Cheng Chi (Chinese Taipei) — 15:33.17
2nd Chou Wei Liang (Chinese Taipei) — 15:44.56
3rd Hsu Che Yu (Chinese Taipei) — 15:50.22
5th Pang Sheng Jun — 16:12.34
Tied 6th Boon Ji Chao Benedict — 16:23.68
8th Oh Yao Jie — 16:28.65

More photos next page