Tao Li of Singapore set a new 100m Backstroke record of 1:01.60 in the heats at the Olympic Games in London. (Photo by Clive Rose © Getty Images for SSC)

 

London, Sunday, July 29, 2012 — Singapore’s Tao Li smashed her own 100m Backstroke national open record of 1 minute 2.11 seconds when she won her heat in a time of 1:01.60 at the London Olympics.

Tao Li set the previous record at the 2011 Palembang SEA Games.

She then had to wait for the remaining four heats to find out if she would make the semi-finals. By Heat 5, it was clear that a place in the semi-finals was not to be for Tao Li as Arianna Barbieri of Italy set the 16th fastest time of 1:00.25.

Only the top 16 swimmers make into the semi-finals. The top 10 swimmers after the heats went under one minute.

Tao Li’s time is 1.35 seconds slower than Barbieri’s and gives her 26th place in a field of 45 swimmers.

Emily Seebohm of Australia set an Olympic record of 58.23 in Heat 4. She broke the previous record of 58.77 set by Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

This was Tao Li’s second of two events at the Olympics. She finished 10th overall in the 100m Butterfly semi-finals earlier this morning.

Lynette Lim finished 30th of 35 swimmers in the women’s 400m Freestyle with a time of four minutes 18.64 seconds. It was off her Olympic qualifying time of 4:15.07 set last July at the Los Angeles Invitational meet, and also two seconds slower than her fastest time of the year. She swam a 4:16.62 at June’s Santa Clara Invitational meet.

Lynette, 20, holds the national open record of 4:11.24, set at the 2009 Laos SEA Games.

She will take to the pool again on Thursday, August 2nd, for the 800m Freestyle heats.