HANGZHOU – As the other seven swimmers left the pool, Singapore’s Letitia Sim lingered a while longer, seeming to wonder what could have been as just 0.12 of a second separated her from an Asian Games medal on Wednesday.
As she slowly emerged, she must have been awash with disappointment after giving it her all in the women’s 100m breaststroke final. She had set a national record of 1min 07.13sec, improving on her previous mark of 1:07.27, only to finish fourth.
She was out-touched by Japanese duo Reona Aoki (1:06.81) and Satomi Suzuki (1:06.95) as well as China’s Yang Chang (1:07.01).
Sim, 20, also rewrote the 50m breaststroke national record last Sunday. She said: “The race was close and it was tough not to bring home a medal, but I gave it my all and, even though I fell short, I am happy to have the national records. There is still more racing to go and I will take what I can from these races into tomorrow.”
National coach Gary Tan said Sim – who was third and led Yang by 0.21sec at the turn – had gone out fast according to plan and, while she could not keep up her stroke rate in the last 15m, he praised her mental strength.
There was more disappointment for Sim as she again finished fourth with a national record, this time in the mixed 4x100m medley relay alongside Quah Zheng Wen, Quah Jing Wen and Jonathan Tan. They clocked 3:49.73, beating the previous mark of 3:51.72, but trailed China (3:37.73), Japan (3:44.64) and South Korea (3:46.78).
It was an Asian record for Xu Jiayu, Qin Haiyang, Zhang Yufei and Yang Junxuan but they were a whisker away from Britain’s world-leading 3:37.58.
Still, this was China’s 19th swimming title here – matching their haul from the 2018 Asiad – and, with two days left, the hosts are expected to break Japan’s record of 25 golds from Bangkok 1978.
Xu stated: “Records are meant to be broken, just like how someone may break my 10-gold record at the next Games, or I could extend my own record.”
The fourth day of the meet had begun with a mass karaoke session as Chinese song Laughter Over The Sea blared over the speakers, and the home team were once again on song at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Park Aquatics Centre.
In the opening women’s 100m butterfly, Zhang teased the 12,000-strong crowd with her rendition of Jay Chou’s hit song Rice Field before coming tantalisingly close to Swede Sarah Sjostrom’s world record of 55.48sec, before touching the wall in 55.86.
Zhang said: “This wasn’t the record I wanted. I wanted to break the world record. I will never change my targets. If I change them, I will not have the drive to go for the Paris 2024 Olympics or other goals after that.”
Japan’s defending champion and cancer survivor Rikako Ikee was fifth in 58.98. Compatriot Ai Soma took silver in 57.57, while China’s Wang Yichun was third in 57.83. Jing Wen was seventh in 59.60.
In the men’s 100m fly, Katsuhiro Matsumoto won in 51.13, ahead of China’s Wang Changhao (51.24) and Kazakhstan’s Adilbek Mussin (51.86). Zheng Wen was sixth in 52.26.
China’s Wan Letian then won the women’s 100m backstroke in 59.38, ahead of teammate Wang Xueer (59.52). South Korea’s Lee Eun-ji was third in 1:00.03, while Singapore’s debutante Levenia Sim was seventh in 1:01.89.
Hwang Sun-woo underlined his prowess in the 200m freestyle, helping South Korea to their third swimming gold here, winning in a Games record of 1:44.40 to erase compatriot Park Tae-hwan’s mark of 1:44.80 from Guangzhou 2010.
Teammate Lee Ho-joon picked up the bronze in 1:45.56, while China’s Pan Zhanle was second in 1:45.28. Singaporeans Glen Lim (1:49.00) and Ardi Azman (1:49.22) were seventh and eighth respectively.
There was another tight finish as China’s 18-year-old Yu Yiting completed the women’s 200m and 400m individual medley double by winning the longer race in 4:35.44, just ahead of Japan’s Ageha Tanigawa (4:35.65) and Mio Narita (4:38.77).
