HANGZHOU – There is a “big concern” when it comes to replacing the golden girls of Singapore swimming, especially where sprinters Quah Ting Wen and Amanda Lim are concerned, according to national coach Gary Tan.
Both swimmers have crossed the 30-year-old mark but are still the standard bearers – Quah won 50m and 100m freestyle golds at the 2023 SEA Games while Lim was second in the shorter sprint – with no youngsters coming close to matching their speed.
And so, they huffed and puffed alongside Quah Jing Wen and Nur Marina Chan to finish fourth in the Asian Games women’s 4x100m freestyle final at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Park Aquatics Centre on Sunday as China, Japan and Hong Kong made the podium in that order.
The women can still hold their heads high as their time of 3min 44.16sec was more than two seconds faster than what they clocked as the third-best qualifiers in the morning heats, and 0.13 seconds quicker than when they won the Republic’s 1,000th gold at the SEA Games in May.
But looking to the future, Tan said: “I’m not gonna lie. We do have a big concern especially in our pipeline. That’s why there’s a lot being done to try and lift up the programming.
“The clubs need to step up on building programmes because we cannot just keep relying on these girls as they are in their twilight years and they have contributed enough... to lift the standard. The new ones need to come through.”
Ting Wen, 31, intimated these could be her last Asiad and said: “It would have been really nice to win a medal. That’s why we are all here, but I think I can walk away from this race, potentially my last Asian Games, knowing that I did everything I could today and I’m proud of myself and my teammates.”
Lim, 30, added: “Coming in fourth is hard, but a bronze medal was a long shot as well. Third place was 3:39.10, which meant all of us needed to swim massive personal bests to reach that. All of our splits were pretty decent, which meant we are moving in the right direction heading into the world championships next year.”
There was one bright spark in the form of a national record from Letitia Sim, who finished seventh in the women’s 50m breaststroke in 31.15sec and improved on her previous mark by one hundredth of a second.
The 20-year-old, who holds the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke national records, said: “It didn’t feel as amazing as I wanted it to be, but I’m happy with the swim overall. The start felt wonky. I’m not on my A-game just yet, but that’s fine. There’s still the 100m, which is what I’m looking forward to. This sets me up really well for that.”
Elsewhere, there was another fourth place for Singapore with Gan Ching Hwee completing the women’s 1,500m freestyle in 16:24.67, around seven seconds off Japan’s bronze medallist Yukimi Moriyama.
It was a closer fight for third place in the women’s 200m butterfly, but Jing Wen gradually lost pace in the battle for bronze and finished fifth in 2:10.13, less than a second behind Japan’s third-placed Hiroko Makino’s 2:09.22.
In the men’s 100m freestyle, South-east Asia’s fastest man Jonathan Tan came in sixth in 48.94sec, while teammate Quah Zheng Wen was eighth in 49.27sec, while in the men’s 200m individual medley, Zachary Tan and Maximillian Ang placed seventh (2:02.94) and eighth (2:03.21) respectively.
Gary said of Sim’s record: “Even if it is 0.01, we will take the national record in what was a very tough and competitive environment. It’s a good learning curve on the first day, and we have five more days of racing to achieve more.”
Among other races on Monday, Asia’s fastest man in the pool will be crowned as Jonathan will look to make an impact in the 50m free. With his national record of 21.91sec, the 21-year-old has the second-fastest time in Asia in 2023 behind the 21.86sec set by Hong Kong’s Ian Ho.
