PHNOM PENH – Jet lag, allergies, coping with unfamiliar heat and humidity. Each time Letitia Sim travels from the United States, where she lives, to compete at the SEA Games, she rarely feels a hundred per cent.
That does not stop her from pushing herself in the pool, though. And winning.
The Singaporean, laser focused as she emerged from the tunnel in just her swimsuit instead of the usual tracksuit swimmers tend to favour, proved too good in the 100m breaststroke on Tuesday night, winning in a meet record of 1min 7.94sec.
Malaysian Phee Jinq En, who held the previous mark of 1:08.50 set in 2019, was second in 1:09.60, followed by Singapore’s Christie Chue (1:10.94).
Sim, 20, who was congratulated by Phee after the race, said: “Not sure if it was sinuses or allergies, I was just not feeling it the first two days. Also, the time change could have been a big difference because I was coming from the US and a few days to adjust is hard.
“At the Hanoi Games, I had a sinus infection near the 50m breaststroke race, so this has been a little bit of deja vu.”
In Vietnam 12 months ago, she still prevailed to complete the 50m and 100m double.
She was second this time in the shorter distance, losing to Thai Jenjira Srisa-Ard, but surprised herself to win the 200m individual medley the next evening at the Morodok Techo Aquatics Centre.
Sim said: “The first event was a bit rough but it was just the first one, so I didn’t mind it that much.
“I’m glad it is (my form) going up, now I just have to level up the emotions. I still have two more days and a lot of events left.”
Try telling that to an ecstatic Faith Khoo. She captured her first Games medal on Tuesday, finishing second in the 100m backstroke in 1:03.68.
She was sandwiched between Filipina Teia Isabella Salvino (1:01.64) and Indonesian Angel Gabriella Yus (1:03.71).
Khoo, 19, said: “I was just focusing on improving from this morning’s heats. I’m just so happy.”
It was deja vu once again for Singapore on Tuesday as their other three golds came courtesy of the Quah siblings.
Jing Wen, 22, won the evening’s first race, the women’s 100m butterfly, in 59.02sec, beating older sister Ting Wen, 30, who finished 0.49sec behind for the silver. Filipina Jasmine Alkhaldi took bronze in 1:00.45.
Their brother Zheng Wen then overcame a poor first 50m to overhaul Teong Tzen Wei and win the 100m fly in 52.04, 0.56sec ahead of his teammate.
Jarod Hatch of the Philippines was third in 52.91.
The 100m fly win gave him 30 SEA Games golds, breaking Joseph Schooling’s record.
The Quahs then teamed up with Nicholas Mahabir in the 4x100m mixed medley, now an Olympic event and making its debut at the SEA Games.
The quartet dominated and won in 3:51.72, ahead of the Philippines (3:57.01) and Thailand (3:58.18).
This was the first time all three Quahs have raced together in a relay – the mixed gender format is relatively new – and it made Phnom Penh a special outing, said the trio.
Not wanting to feel left out, their teammate and 17-year-old Games rookie Nicholas showed off his rhyming skills – “Normally I go by Nick Mah, but tonight I’m a Quah” – to laughter from his adopted family.
He added: “So there are actually four of us. But jokes aside, it was a really fun race, I’m glad I got to do it with these three.”
