By Erwin Wong

Rome, Friday, July 31, 2009 - Team Singapore swimmers had set or equaled 5 national records in the previous 5 days of action at the 13th FINA World Swimming Championships, but on Day 6, they had to wait for their final representative of the morning heats for the 6th.

Lynette Lim broke her own national 800m Freestyle record when she swam a new time of 8:42.16s. Her old mark of 8:45.56s, set at last year's Beijing Olympics, went quickly as she swam a strong second half of the race.

Her time after the first 400m was 4:22.64s which placed her 4th, but she pulled away ahead of the field at the 650m mark on her way to clocking a brilliant negative split of 4:19.52s to set her second individual national record of the meet, the first of which was the 1500m Freestyle. She is also part of the 4x200m Freestyle relay team which shattered the national mark yesterday.

Lynette's time was also faster than the South East Asian Games record of 8:47.80s set by Malaysian Khoo Cai Lin, who beat Lynette to the gold medal in 2007. Khoo only managed a 9:05.77s here. Koh Hui Yu swam a heat earlier than Lynette and won that as well, leading from start to finish to improve her season's best of 9:13.24s with a 9:10.25s performance.

2 other Team Singapore swimmers were within decimals of a second to join Lynette on the record-breaking books. In the women's 50m Butterfly, Tao Li swam a quick time of 26.76s which was 0.03s off her own national mark, set at the 2006 Doha Asian Games. Her time propelled her to second on the overall rankings after her heat, and she was still in contention to qualify as one of the top 16 after 12 races, but the seeded swimmers in the final 2 heats were too quick for her, as she finished in an admirable 28th place out of a field of 135. Mylene Ong clocked a time of 28.48s.

Nicholas Tan bettered his season's best of 55.54s in the men's 100m Butterfly, but his time of 54.84s just failed to knock his own record of 54.79s off the books. Nicholas, though, has his work cut out for him if he wants to keep up with the regional threat of Daniel Bego, as the Malaysian clocked a time of 53.33s. Nicholas Sim had a personal best of 56.83s at April's ASEAN Cup, but the Raffles Institution student only managed a 57.10s performance here.

In other events, Jeffrey Su and Clement Lim returned times of 24.08s and 24.18s respectively in the men's 50m Freestyle, the latter coming within a hundredth of a second from his personal best. Shana Lim has had a strong meet so far, equaling the national and Under-17 women's 50m Backstroke record which she shares, and was 0.3s from her own 100m Backstroke Under-17 mark. But she did not do as well in the 200m Backstroke, returning a time of 2:22.65s which trailed her personal best by over 3 seconds.

The men's 4x200m Freestyle relay team had to average about 1:53.91s to break the existing national record of 7:35.65s set at the 2005 SEA Games, and it looked possible on paper as the 4 swimmers that took to the pool had recent form which indicated so.

But a first leg split of 1:57.33s by Danny Yeo all but put paid to their record-breaking exploits, and the national mark stood after Joshua Lim (1:52.67s), Nicholas Tan (1:53.98s) and Clement Lim (1:54.56s) had finished in a collective time of 7:38.54s. This time, though, is still faster than the gold medal winning time of 7:38.62s set by their compatriots at the previous SEA Games.

Team Singapore will look to continue their fine display at this meet in tomorrow's events. They will be represented by Quah Ting Wen and Amanda Lim (women's 50m Freestyle), Cheryl Lim and Roanne Ho (women's 50m Breaststroke), Rainer Ng (men's 50m Backstroke), and the women's 4x100m Medley relay team. Amanda, Roanne and Rainer are the respective national record holders in those events, while the women’s squad is deep enough to spring an assault on the existing medley relay mark.