Swimming: Amanda Lim secures ticket to her fourth Asian Games; aims to make it her best yet

SINGAPORE - When Amanda Lim made her Asian Games debut in Guangzhou back in 2010, she was just 17.

More than a decade later, she will head to her fourth Asiad - again in China - determined for it to be the best one yet.

Lim booked her place at the Sept 10-25 Hangzhou Games after winning Saturday's (March 19) 50m freestyle final on the fifth and penultimate day of the SNAG Major Games Qualifier.

The freestyle sprint specialist, who is a six-time SEA Games champion in the event, touched the wall first at the OCBC Aquatic Centre in the Liberty Insurance-backed event last night.

The 29-year-old clocked 25.48 seconds, the exact time needed for the Asian Games 'A' cut.

On her renewed energy and enthusiasm this year, Lim said: "I definitely think this (2022 Games) will be the best one. I want to go there and improve on what I've done so far.

"When I was younger, it felt like I was just going through the routine, following blindly whatever the coach wanted me to do and I would just do it and just swim.

"But in the past two years, perhaps because of maturity or probably just because I am older, I approach everything with more purpose and more intent, the goal is clearer, every training has a very specific goal.

"What I want is also very specific and important, so the past few years have been very different."

Lim whose career spans 15 years and counting, added that while she was satisfied with meeting the objective of securing qualification for the Asian Games, she was unhappy with her timing. Her personal best is 25.06sec, which came during the final at the 2019 SEA Games in the Philippines. She finished fifth at the Asiad a year earlier.

She said: "I came into tonight's race wanting to do a personal best and make the 'A' cut and qualify...

"I was a little bit disappointed with my race today, but at the end of the day, the objective was achieved, so right now I will be taking two days break and then... see what can be done better from now till the Asian Games."

Gustavo Schirru, the National Training Centre assistant coach, and a dedicated coach to the sprint swimmers, said he expects Lim to produce quicker timings in the months to come.

The women's 50m free national record is 24.92sec, set by Quah Ting Wen at the 2019 Fina Swimming World Cup in Japan. The 29-year-old finished second behind Lim on Saturday in 25.56sec.

Schirru, who has been working on ensuring Lim puts more power and distance in her strokes, said: "We are working on helping her to go below 25sec. But her progression this year has been awesome, and in fact, I was expecting her to go faster, but what matters is that she made the cut, and that was our primary goal.

"I have confidence that she can go faster."

Also making the Asian Games 'A' cut was the men's 4x200m free relay team comprising Glen Lim, Jonathan Tan, Ardi Azman and Quah Zheng Wen.

Their individual timings in the men's 200m free - Lim (1min 49.69sec), Tan (1:50.34), Ardi (1:50.35) and Quah (1:51.00) - was good enough for a total combined time of 7.21.38, which is well below the Asian Games 'A' qualifying mark of 7:32.02.