Girls smash 6 of 12 records at 50th National Swimming Championships

By Marvin Lowe

Singapore Sports School, Tuesday, April 28, 2009 – Records tumbled like dominoes on the first day of the finals of the 50th National Swimming Championship. A grand total of 12 records were broken, itself a record for the annual inter-school swimming championships.

What’s notable is that the girls broke six out of the 12 records.

The first record of the day went to a girl. Shana Lim from Hwa Chong International School got things going when she broke Tao Li’s 50m backstroke set in 2006 with a timing of 29.24 seconds, shaving 0.5sec off the Tao Li record. She came close to bettering her own Personal Best (PB) of 29.20s set earlier in the national age group competition. This was the first of seven amazing records shattered in the morning session.

The next record to be rewritten was the C Division Girls’ 200m Individual Medley. Two girls in this race beat the old mark of 2:28.75 minutes. Meagan Lim from Methodist Girls’ School came out tops with the new record timing of 2:27.22 while Koh Hui Yu from Raffles Girls’ School was second with 2:28.69. It was a close race from the start but Meagan took the lead as she surged forward in the breaststroke leg of the race and never looked back.

As the afternoon session opened, it was the girls who started the ball rolling again. Cheryl Lim from RGS broke a decade old record in the 200m Breaststroke. She finished the race with a new PB at 2:39.78 minutes. Next up, Amanda Lim from Singapore Sports School made big splashes in the B Division 100m Freestyle. She set a new record in style in 58 seconds flat.

Singapore’s new Golden Girl Quah Ting Wen also smashed two records in her events as well. In her first race, the 200m Individual Medley, Ting Wen swiped seven seconds off the old record by Christel Bouvron. She finished with a timing of 2:22.77 minutes and was miles ahead of her nearest competitor.

Ting Wen’s second record came in the A Division 100m Freestyle. Although she rewrote the record with a new timing of 57.08 seconds, Ting Wen failed to improve on her PB. Nonetheless, it was a fruitful day for Ting Wen who finished at the end with three golds.

“I am very happy and satisfied with my performance today,” quipped Ting Wen. ” I will be hoping to better my performance at the Singapore Nationals in June and qualify for the SEA Games as well.”