Singapore’s Levenia Sim finishes 13th in 100m back at world juniors
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Levenia Sim (right) decided to represent Singapore after watching her older sister Letitia (left) don national colours for the last two years.
PHOTO: LEVENIA SIM
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SINGAPORE – A fairy-tale start to Levenia Sim’s international swimming career for Singapore did not materialise, as she missed out on the women’s 100m backstroke final at the World Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships in Netanya, Israel on Monday.
In the first of two evening semi-finals, she clocked 1min 2.74sec to finish seventh out of eight swimmers, and joint-13th of 16 overall.
American Teagan O’Dell was the fastest in 59.83.
In her first race for the nation, the 17-year-old did 1:02.21 to finish third among 10 swimmers in the sixth of seven morning heats.
While this is some way off her personal best of 1:00.45 – which is under Tao Li’s 2012 national record of 1:01.60 – it was good enough to place her 10th among 63 athletes overall as she qualified for the semi-finals.
The highly rated Levenia, who is born in the United States to Singaporean parents, and whose 20-year-old sister is local-born breaststroke specialist Letitia Sim, decided to commit to the Republic in March.
She is also slated to swim in the 50m butterfly heats on Wednesday, as well as other back and fly events later on, before taking part in her first major Games at the Sept 23-Oct 8 Asiad in Hangzhou.
Levenia was the only Singaporean to progress past the heats on the first day of the world junior championships.
Jadon Yoong, 18, was eighth in the last of six men’s 100m breaststroke heats in 1:04.00, as he ended 21st out of 57 athletes. His final event will be the 50m breaststroke on Friday.
In the men’s 400m freestyle, Brandon Yap touched the wall first in the fourth of seventh heats in 4:00.13, but placed 26th among 61 swimmers to miss out on the semi-finals.
The 17-year-old will compete in the 200m freestyle on Tuesday.
Zackery Tay, 17, was 26th of 60 participants after clocking 57.84 in the men’s 100m backstroke to finish ninth in the fourth of six heats. He will swim in the 200m individual medley on Tuesday.
Singapore have never won a medal in this competition. Their best performance was by Jonathan Tan, who finished fifth in the men’s 50m freestyle final in 2019.
