Another day in the pool, another swimming gold clinched and two more national records broken.
Singapore teen swim queen Quah Ting Wen followed in the footsteps of her national teammate Lynette Lim this evening when she won the Girls 200m freestyle final and set a new national mark during the swimming competition of the Asian Youth Games.
Yesterday, Ting Wen watched on as Lynette won the Girls 400m freestyle in a new national record time (see previous post).
This evening, the 17-year-old Raffles Institution (Junior College) student followed suit as she splashed her way to gold in 1min 59.21sec, just a whisker ahead of South Korea’s Kim Junghye who finished second-best in 1:59.93.
It was a scintillating come-from-behind triumph by Ting Wen which had the crowd at the Singapore Sports School on its feet and screaming their throats out as they willed her to victory.
Trailing Junghye for 150m of the race, Ting Wen stepped on the accelerator and made a final surge in the final 50m. She caught up with Junghye midway through the lap, overtook her and then never looked back. And the crowd roared as she finally touched home in her new national-record breaking time.
Another South Korean lass, Kim Seoyeong, beat Lynette to the bronze when she touched home in 2:01.92. Lynette was fourth in 2:04.66.
Ting Wen’s record-breaking swim also means that this is the third time this year that she has broken the 200m freestyle record. She first broke it at the 40th National Age-Group Championships in March and then repeated the feat at the 5th National Championships last month.
Another national record was broken tonight – the third at the Asian Youth Games. Breaststroke specialist Roanne Ho sliced 0.57sec off her national mark of 33.01sec when she finished third in the Girls 50m breaststroke in 32.44. She was beaten by China’s Wang Chang (31.80sec) and South Korean swimmer Jung Haeun (32.09sec).
Roanne aside, Singapore won two more bronzes – in the Boys 100m backstroke and Boys 50m breaststroke.
Rainer Ng clocked 58.67sec in the Boys 100m backstroke to finish behind Kuwait’s Abdullah Althuwairu (56.71sec) and Kazakhstan’s Ruslan Baimanov (58.47sec) while Lionel Khoo finished third (29.84sec) in the Boys final, behind the China duo of Sun Yuchen (29.16sec) and Wang Ximing (29.28sec).
The Republic missed out on a medal in the Boys 4x100m freestyle relay though. They finished fourth. Hong Kong won the race followed by South Korea and China.
Singapore also won bronzes in athletics and table-tennis today.
Singapore Sports School sprinter Shahrir Mohd Anuar was tipped toslug it out with Japan’s Masaki Nashimoto for the Boys 100m gold at the Bishan Stadium today.
But to the 16-year-old’s dismay, he suffered a double blow. Not only did he fail to beat Nashimoto, he was also pipped to the bronze by Thailand’s Kittisak Phiraksa who made a late surge to finish behind Nashimoto.
Nashimoto won in 10.81sec followed by Phiraksa who clocked 11.11sec. Shahrir took the bronze in 11.13sec.
In table tennis, Singapore’s Isabelli LiChan Hai Qing, Tay Jit Kiat and Clarence Chew lost 0-2 to China in the mixed-team semi-finals but still won a bronze as there are no play-offs for third and fourth place.
Yours in sport
Singapore Sports Fan
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