With just four months to the Tokyo Olympics, it is back to the drawing board for Singapore's swimmers after they fell short of expectations at this week's Liberty Insurance 51st Singapore National Age Group Swimming Championships (SNAG) Major Games Qualifier.
Stephan Widmer and Gary Tan, respective national head coaches for swimming and the training centre, had expected about five more athletes to make the Olympic 'A' cut at the meet. But there were none after five days of racing at the OCBC Aquatic Centre.
The candidates expected to hit 'A' times included two-time Olympian Quah Ting Wen, sprint queen Amanda Lim and Maximillian Ang.
To date, Olympic gold medallist Joseph Schooling and Quah Zheng Wen are the only two swimmers who have earned their tickets to Tokyo.
The March 17-21 competition was the second of three local meets for swimmers to qualify for the Tokyo Games, with the first being December's Singapore National Olympic Qualifier.
Widmer said: "Most of the swimmers haven't tapered for about 14 to 15 months (owing to Covid-19). I did think that we could still feel that, it's reality and it wasn't easy. The different rules of competition like not having the crowd there was easier for some, but for some it was harder.
"It was the goal to get some athletes to 'A' cuts and we didn't achieve that, but there are some knocking on the door and we had heaps of 'B' cuts again."
While the coronavirus had forced athletes into a long layoff from competition, Widmer insisted that he did not want to make excuses as "that's just the rule of the game".
While he did not go into much detail, he noted that factors such as injury had affected swimmers like Gan Ching Hwee, while others such as Quah had not been able to replicate her training performances at the meet.
Despite the setbacks, both coaches said there were still positives to take away from the meet, such as Ang's national record in the 200m breaststroke.
The coaches are still aiming for four to eight swimmers, including those from the women's 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle relay teams, to make the Olympic 'A' cut at the Singapore National Swimming Championships in June.
With the international schedule still in limbo, June's competition is the final local meet for swimmers to qualify for the July 23-Aug 8 Games.
Tan said: "We all still have that hope of them still making it in June. We've also not performed to our own expectations as well as coaches so it's time that we go back and do a reassessment of what we need to do."
The final race day at the SNAG yesterday saw Jonathan Tan (22.41 seconds), Mikkel Lee (22.62) and Teong Tzen Wei (22.66) meeting the Olympic 'B' cut in the men's 50m freestyle, along with Pang Sheng Jun, who won the men's 200m individual medley in 2min 02.68sec. Tan, Lee and Pang also qualified for their respective events at the year-end SEA Games in Hanoi.
