By Erwin Wong/Red Sports

commonwealth games 2010

Dzulhaili clocked a personal best of 27.60 seconds in the 50m Backstroke. (Photo 1 courtesy of SSC)

India, Tuesday, October 5, 2010 — 16-year-old Singaporeans Dzulhaili Mohd Kamal, Teo Zhen Ren and Jeremy Kevin Matthews clocked personal best times in the first two days of swimming competition at the 19th Commonwealth Games.

Dzulhaili was the first of the Team Singapore contingent to take to the pool yesterday, and clocked a personal best of 27.60 seconds in the 50 metres Backstroke. He was sixth in his heat and 16th overall, and advanced to the evening semi-finals as the last qualifier.

There, the Singapore Sports School student finished 15th overall, but his time of 27.74s was still quicker than his pre-Games best of 27.96 set in April’s National School’s meet.

Despite not qualifying for the final, both Zhen Ren and Jeremy broke their 200m Freestyle personal bests by about half a second in today’s heats. Zhen Ren clocked 1 minute 56.23 seconds while Jeremy was a hundredth of a second slower.

Their previous bests were 1:56.77 and 1:56.71 respectively, and they are the seventh and eighth quickest Singaporeans in this discipline this year.

The Men’s 4x100m Freestyle relay team qualified for yesterday’s final in eighth place from a field of 11. The team of Arren Quek, Richard Chng, Aaron Yeo and Dzulhaili finished eighth again in the final, but improved on their heat time by 0.31 seconds to finish in 3:30.71.

Results
Day 1

Men’s 50m Backstroke Heats
Dzulhaili Mohd Kamal 27.60 (PB, 16th)

Men’s 50m Backstroke Semi-Finals
Dzulhaili Mohd Kamal 27.74 (15th)

Men’s 400m Freestyle Heats
Jeremy Kevin Matthews: 4:07.07 (19th)
Teo Zhen Ren: 4:07.25 (20th)
Mattias Ng: 4:13.03 (21st)

Men’s 4x100m Freestyle Heats
Arren Quek (52.59), Richard Chng (52.52), Aaron Yeo (53.31), Dzulhaili Mohd Kamal (52.60): 3:31.02 (8th)

Men’s 4x100m Freestyle Final
Arren Quek (52.88), Richard Chng (52.37), Aaron Yeo (53.10), Dzulhaili Mohd Kamal (52.36): 3:30.71 (8th)

Day 2

Men’s 50m Butterfly Heats
Dzulhaili Mohd Kamal: 25.82 (18th)
Arren Quek: 26.73 (24th)
Aaron Yeo: 27.22 (29th)

Men’s 200m Freestyle Heats
Teo Zhen Ren: 1:56.23 (PB, 20th)
Jeremy Kevin Matthews: 1:56.24 (PB, 21st)
Arren Quek: 1:57.90 (25th)

commonwealth games 2010

Jeremy Matthews set a new personal best of 1:56.24 in the 200m Freestyle when he finished 21st in the heats today. He did not qualify for the final. (Photo 2 courtesy of SSC)

commonwealth games 2010

Teo Zhen Ren clocked 1:56.23, a personal best in the 200m Freestyle. He finished 20th and did not qualify for the final. (Photo 3 courtesy of SSC)