SINGAPORE - Singapore's para swimmers bagged a gold and a silver on day two of the IDM (Internationale Deutsche Meisterschaften) Berlin 2022 on Friday (Apr 1).
After picking up a silver in the women's 200m backstroke, Paralympic five-gold medallist Yip Pin Xiu doubled her tally with a silver in the women's 50m backstroke, clocking 1min 3.01sec to earn 888 points
She finished ahead of Germany's Verena Schott, whose timing of 40.26sec, though faster, only earned her 873 points. Briton Hannah Russell took gold (31.98sec, 907 points).
The event uses a German multi-class points system which sees swimmers of different classifications awarded points after their times are compared with base timings for the respective classes.
Yip said: "Coming into this meet, it was the first meet out of Tokyo and I tried to shake off some dust. I'm really happy with my timings and looking forward to the World Championships in June.
"Competition experience leading up to the World Championships is very important to me. During the pandemic we were missing quite a few competitions and going into Tokyo was a bit harder. So hopefully with travel opening up, I will be a bit more confident in the world championships."
The men's 4x100m freestyle relay team won Singapore's first gold at the competition in a time of 4:13.42 (570 points). The team comprising Colin Soon, Wong Zhi Wei, Darren Chan and Toh Wei Soong beat the German quartet of Felix Uli Fichtelmann, Lars Zhuravskiy, Jason Keil and Yannick Schroeter, whose timing of 4:37.58 earned them 403 points.
Singapore Disability Sports Council (SDSC) executive director Kelly Fan said: "We are excited by the pipeline that we have put together.
"Besides the two major games in 2021 which were limited to a select few, our swimmers had not been able to compete in any other international events since the pandemic hit in 2020.
"This event is really a check, especially for those who have been identified for a pathway towards 2024 and 2028 Paralympic goals - a chance to refresh themselves for the new cycle, and regain their pace towards their goals."
Seven swimmers are competing at the Berlin leg of the Para Swimming World Series 2022. The event ends on Sunday.