Story by Les Tan and Erwin Wong/Red Sports. Photos by Clara Yuan and Lim Yong Teck/Red Sports

Singapore National Age Group Swimming Championships

12-year-old Charity Lien reacts after her 400m individual medley race. She set a new meet record in 5:12.10, smashing Chriselle Koh’s 10-year-old record of 5:26.32. (Photo 1 © Lim Yong Teck/Red Sports)

OCBC Aquatic Centre, Friday, March 13, 2015 — Claresa Liau, Lynette Some and Charity Lien set new records on Day 1 at the Singapura Finance 46th Singapore National Age Group Swimming Championships.

Charity Lien, 12, was the first girl to break a record when she clocked 2 minute 41.62 seconds in the 200m breaststroke. Her time was just under a second faster than the 2:42.53 record for 12 year olds set by current national swimmer Samantha Yeo on March 15, 2009.

Swimming in the same race as Charity was Claresa Liau, her fellow swimming mate at Chinese Swimming Club. Claresa stopped the clock at 2:53.73 to set a new meet record for 11 year olds, breaking the old record of 3:03.92 set by Herlene Natasha Yu on March 15, 2013.

Charity later stormed to her second victory and meet record of the evening when she lowered Chriselle Koh’s 10-year-old mark in the 400m individual medley. Charity swam a time of 5:12.10 to break Chriselle’s record of 5:26.32.

In similar fashion, Claresa claimed her second win of the night and took down another meet record to boot. She clocked a time of 5:37.80 in the 400m IM for 11 year olds, breaking Herlene Natasha Yu’s mark of 5:56.28.

“I looked up and saw that I broke the record. I felt very happy,” said Claresa. “During training, I was not matching the record time.”

“It was a tiring race. I felt better during the breaststroke because during the backstroke I slowed down. I was really tired after the butterfly leg, so I decided to slow down for the backstroke, so that I could swim faster for the breaststroke,” recalled Claresa, who was only swimming this event for the second time in her life.

“I’d like to thank He jiao lian (coach). I’d like to thank my parents for supporting me,” added Claresa, who turns 11 on June 1, and is currently in Primary 5 at Nanyang Primary.

Lynette Some was the youngest record breaker on the night. The 8-year-old, who was swimming for Chinese Swimming Club as well, clocked 35.73s in the 50m freestyle. That broke the old record of 37.39 for 8 year olds set by Ashley Lim Yi-Xuan on March 16, 2013.

“I like the deep pool,” said the Primary 2 student from Tao Nan School. “I felt happy seeing so many people in the stands. I was very excited before the race. It felt scary also.”

“I was almost out of breath and swam very hard. After the swim, my leg was painful because of cramp,” added Lynette.

For more details of the event, go to: www.facebook.com/swimsnag
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