Quah Ting Wen Becomes First Singaporean Sub-55 100 Freestyler

50TH SINGAPORE NATIONAL AGE GROUP SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS (SNAGS)

• Tuesday, March 19th – Sunday, March 24th (Senior Swimmers)
• OCBC Aquatic Centre
• LCM
• Qualifying Meet for 2019 World Championships, 2019 World Junior Championships, 2019 SEA Games, 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games
• Meet Site
• SwimSwam Meet Preview
• Day 1 Recap
• Entry Lists/Results

We already saw two Singaporean National Age Records fall on day 1 of the National Age Group Swimming Championships (SNAGs), but tonight a Senior National Record bit the dust.

Claiming the top seed of the morning in the women’s 100m freestyle, Quah Ting Wen lowered her own NR of 55.41 to a new sub-55 second milestone of 54.98. That means Quah is the first Singaporean female to ever delve under the 55-second barrier in the event.

But, the 26-year-old former Cal swimmer had more in store for the final, where Quah nailed an even faster national standard of 54.82. Her outing collected the gold here at the OCBC Aquatic Centre by over half a second and the time places Quah just inside the top 25 performers in the world this season.

Olympic champion Joseph Schooling was in the water for the men, taking the 100m freestyle event in a time of 49.35.  That’s the former Texas Longhorn’s fastest of the season and represented 1 of 2 swimmers in the final to dip under 50 seconds. Runner-up in the 18&O grouping was AquaTech 19-year-old Darren Chua, who touched in 49.80.

However, 17-year-old Jonathan Tan nailed the 2nd fastest time behind Schooling, registering a mark of 49.73. He finished top of the 15-17 category. Of note, just for perspective, Tan’s time would render the teen 17th on USA’s all-time performers’ list for 17-18 100m freestyle, per USA Swimming’s database.

Chua would go on to take the gold later in the same session, reaping the top time in the men’s 200m IM with a podium-topping 2:04.01.

Additional Winners:

• The women’s 200m IM saw a swimmer from the 15-17 age category actually nail the fastest time, as Japan’s Hinata Yamashita  won her age group in a time of 2:17.80. The top time of the 18&O women was another visiting Japanese athlete in Kei Yamaoka, who touched in 2:23.68.
• Japan’s Wato Shiota was the 200m back winner fro the men’s 15-17 category in a time of 2:04.45, also beating the 18&O winner WeiYang Low who took gold in that category in 2:08.01.
• The women’s 200m back saw Yumi Shuno of the 18&O category clock the fastest overall time in 2:15.19.