Para-swimming: Singapore third in freestyle relay at world meet

SINGAPORE - Team Singapore's para-swimmers finished third in the 4x100m freestyle mixed relay at the Copenhagen 2018 World Para Swimming World Series on Saturday evening (Sunday morning, Singapore time).

The quartet of Benson Tan, Danielle Moi, Chew Zi Ling and Han Liang Chou clocked 4min 42.35sec, and finished behind Hong Kong (4:09.74) and Turkey (4:36.94). Only three teams competed in this race.

Also, 2016 Paralympic Games S2 50m and 100m backstroke champion Yip Pin Xiu clocked 2:17.08and finished sixth in the 100m freestyle women's final on Saturday.

The 26-year-old, competing in her first meet since the 2017 Asean Para Games in September 2017, was swimming in an open-class race, which meant swimmers of different classifications raced together.

Para-swimmers are grouped by the degree of activity limitation resulting from an impairment. A lower number indicates a more severe activity limitation than a higher number.

In an open-class race, final positions are determined by how close they are to the world records in their respective classifications, instead of who touches the wall first at the end of the race.

Great Britain's Eleanor Robinson, who is classified S6, won the race in 1:14.84, followed by France's S8 swimmer Claire Supiot (1:07.59) and the Netherlands' S11 competitor Liesette Bruinsma (1:07.05)

Yip also swam in the 50m back heats on Saturday, and placed 11th in 1:04.66. She did not qualify for the final in this event. The Singaporean clocked the current S2 world record of 59.38 in this event at Rio 2016.

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