Singapore’s swimming siblings Quah Ting Wen and Quah Zheng Wen put up a strong showing at the Singapore National Age Group (SNAG) Swimming Championships last evening.
Quah Zheng Wen in action during the mens’ 15 and over 200m backstroke final at the 47th Singapore National Age Group Swimming Championships.
Ting Wen sets a new personal best
Quah Ting Wen, 24, from Swimfast Aquatic Club, set a new personal best in the Women’s 50m Butterfly when she crushed the field with a time of 26.79 seconds to take home the gold medal.
This is despite the 50m butterfly not being part of the Olympic programme that she has been busy training for.
Said Ting Wen, “This is definitely a confidence booster. I’m excited for the 100m Fly which takes place this Saturday and today’s 200m Fly. I don’t wish to pressurise myself but if everything goes well, I think I can actually hit some ‘A’ timings.”
She added, “My short-term goal is definitely the Rio Olympics and if that happens, all focus will be on Rio and the team’s performance there. Past that, I will be focusing on the Asian Games next year. Looking at my current timings for the 50m Fly event, I feel like I can do something special in the next Asian Games.”
Zheng Wen rewrote his 200m backstroke record
Her brother, fellow national swimmer Quah Zheng Wen, 19, also rewrote his own Men’s 200m backstroke meet record (2.01.50 minutes) in the last final yesterday evening, when he completed the race in a time of 2.01.42 minutes.
Said Zheng Wen, “I’m ok with my results and it’s not too bad, but I am getting back to the full swing of training after recovering from a fever a month ago. I feel better now for sure, so I just have to step up and race the best I can. It’s just a mentality that you need to adopt.”
He added, “Training wise, I think that when you hit a certain level of swimming, raw training or pure hard work isn’t enough to bring you to the next level. You’ll need to focus on the finer details of racing and training and I think that really makes a difference. I am hoping to try to get as close as possible to my person bests in this competition. I definitely hope to swim fast and we’ll see how that goes.”
Glen Lim defies expectations
Glen Lim, 14, starting off strong in his 400m freestyle event. He finished second with a timing of 4:09.95, breaking the last national under-14 record of 4:10.68 set by Sng Jun Wei in 1994. (Photo © Chua Kai Yun/Red Sports)
In other news, Glen Lim Jun Wei also defied expectations to break Sng Ju Wei’s 22-year-old National Boy’s U14 400-metre Freestyle record. He completed his race in 4.09.95 minutes. The earlier record had stood at 4.10.68 minutes.
Said Glen, “I was not expecting to break the record as the 400m Freestyle is not my strongest event, but I was thinking to myself that I should try and achieve a personal best and not focus so much on trying to burn out for the first few laps.”
National coach Sergio Lopez was happy
National swimming coach, Sergio Lopez, was happy with his charges. He said, “Today I feel good. We have hit some personal best timings, and the young ones have broke some national records.”
He continued, “The last two months have been kind of hard to deal with in terms of sickness. But now we are looking forward to Zheng Wen bettering his timings for Rio and I have confidence in him. Danny also achieved the fastest time in his life – coming back after his sickness is very important and I am happy.”
SNAG continues today
The SNAG continues with the Men’s and Women’s 200m butterfly, 200m freestyle, 100m breaststroke and 50m backstroke events – at the OCBC Aquatic Centre, Singapore Sports Hub.
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