SEA Games 2025: S’pore’s Mikkel Lee, Gan Ching Hwee, Letitia Sim emerge victorious on Day 2 of swimming

BANGKOK – For the second day in a row, a bespectacled Mikkel Lee resembled Clark Kent when he politely asked the reporters at the mixed zone for his winning time.

But with his glasses off and goggles on, the Singaporean transformed into Superman at the Huamark Aquatic Center as he became Asean’s fastest man on Dec 11 when he won the SEA Games men’s 50m freestyle final in 21.92 seconds, ahead of teammate Teong Tzen Wei (22.42) and Malaysia’s Tong Yu Jing (22.48).

His first win in this event comes on top of his men’s 100m free victory a day earlier, and it was fitting that he collected his gold medal from former teammate and Singapore’s only Olympic champion Joseph Schooling, who is also one of just five men, alongside compatriot Jonathan Tan and Indonesians Triady Sidiq and Richard Sam Bera to complete this SEA Games double.

The elated Lee, who turned 23 on Dec 12, has looked a far cry from the deflated man he was at the Berlin Open in April when he missed the cut in his pet event, the 50m butterfly, for the World Aquatics Championships. While he did eventually qualify for the 50m freestyle in the world championships, self-doubts remained in the build-up to the SEA Games.

Lee said: “I feel relieved. I’m glad to know my training has paid off and I can never complain about a personal-best time. I’m inspired by my roommate (Jonathan Tan) who won the double last time, and I’m happy to put my name in the books alongside him.

“Before yesterday, I had a bit of doubts in my preparation. There were checkpoints I felt were off, so I was a little bit shaken... I lost a bit of faith. It’s important to have a good team to keep me grounded and focus on the right things, because in sport, it’s easy to get shaken and lose sight of our goals. But credit to my coaches, they helped keep me in the right mental space to keep going. 

“Yesterday’s win brought my confidence back, that I’m on the right track. These SEA Games have been about learning to let go and trust the process.”

Compatriot Letitia Sim also showed tremendous self-belief to retain her women’s 200m individual medley in a Games and national record 2min 13.42sec, way ahead of Thailand’s Kamonchanok Kwanmuang (2:16.14), Vietnam’s Vo Thi My Tien (2:16.66) and Quah Jing Wen (2:17.42).

The 22-year-old, who had to overcome suspected food poisoning, mused over her “affinity” with toilets after being stuck in one at the 2023 SEA Games in Cambodia before her morning heats, and having to deal with six visits to the loo since 1am on Dec 11.

She said: “I’m pretty proud of how I handled the race, especially as I wasn’t feeling good this morning with a lot of bowel issues. So I’m really glad I was able to pull through and showcase my hard work.

“Everyone focuses on the positive side, which is good, but I still like to question a lot about where can I improve and what’s holding me back from going 2:12. I’m really glad I’m top in South-east Asia, but I want to be top comparatively to the entire world too.

“I can still improve on my freestyle, closing that last 50m and being really confident with my ability to have a faster split will help me.”

Another Singaporean champion who is chasing faster times despite winning is Gan Ching Hwee, who won the women’s 200m freestyle in a personal best of 2:00.02 and inflicted a first SEA Games defeat on Filipino-Canadian Kayla Sanchez (2:02.19) while Thai Maria Nedelko was third (2:02.71).

The 22-year-old, who is looking to defend her 200m, 400m and 800m triple crowns, said: “The moment I touched the scoreboard, I was quite disappointed because for the longest time, I’ve been wanting to break this two-minute barrier.

“I was just a hair away, so that was quite heart-wrenching, because I feel my training has shown otherwise and I’m better than the timings I did today, but we will analyse each race and move forward from here.”

After a lacklustre Day 1 in which they won just two out of six events, Singapore did well to bag three golds, but could not break through in four other events.

Quah Zheng Wen missed out on the men’s 50m backstroke as he took silver in 25.43sec. Indonesia’s 18-year-old starlet Jason Yusuf touched the wall first in 25.36, as his countryman and defending champion I Gede Siman Sudartawa, a 31-year-old warhorse competing at his last SEA Games, rounded up the podium in 25.49.

There was another upset in the women’s 50m backstroke when the Philippines’ Sanchez finished joint-second despite setting a Games and national record of 28.47sec in the morning heats.

Instead, it was Indonesia’s Masniari Wolf who retained her title in 28.80sec, followed by Thailand’s Saovanee Boonampha and Sanchez who won joint-silver after both clocked 28.84. Singapore’s Levenia Sim, 19, finished seventh in 29.86 in her first final on her SEA Games debut.

Singapore’s 21-year-old debutant Chan Chun Ho was upbeat despite finishing second in the men’s 100m breaststroke final in 1:01.72 behind Vietnam’s Pham Thanh Bao, who won for a third straight time in 1:01.43, and ahead of teammate Maximillian Ang (1:02.35). The Republic had not won this event since Ng Yue Meng’s victory in 1989.

Chan said: “It was very electric and amazing. I saw myself getting there in the end, but just missed out a little bit. This was my first SEA Games event, so I’m really happy for this opportunity to race people who are so much faster than me and definitely it does spur me to want more. Coming in here I was so nervous, but now I’m more confident than ever.”

In the final race of the night, Vietnam also made it a three-peat in the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay, coming from behind to win in 7:18.67, beating Malaysia (7:19.50) and Singapore’s Glen Lim, Ardi Azman, Tan and Zheng Wen (7:21.13).