Story by Iman Hashim/Red Sports. Photos by Chua Kai Yun and Soh Jun Wei/Red Sports
Quah Zheng Wen celebrating his victory after his 200m IM event. He finished first in the open category with a timing of 2:02.65, rewriting his own meet record of 2:03.38 set last year. This is his second fastest time ever in this event, behind only the 2:02.22 which he swam at the 2015 SEA Games. That gave him his current Olympic ‘B’ timing. (Photo 1 © Chua Kai Yun/Red Sports)
OCBC Aquatic Centre, Saturday, March 19, 2016 — Four more men’s meet records fell on the penultimate day of the Singapura Finance 47th Singapore National Age Group (SNAG) Swimming Championships.
Jonathan Tan, 14, of Elite Swim Club (ESC) once again showed that he is one to look out for in the future as he claimed his fourth meet record in the 50 metres freestyle. He clocked an impressive 23.98 seconds to erase the previous mark of 24.11s set by Darren Chua two years ago.
The Secondary Two student from Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) [ACS(I)] then nearly claimed his fifth meet record as he finished the 100m butterfly in 57.33s, falling marginally short of Dylan Koo’s 57.30s mark set in 2013.
Nonetheless, Jonathan was all smiles as he gathered his thoughts on his day’s performances. “I did a new personal best for the 50m freestyle so I’m pretty happy. And then for the 100m butterfly, of course I’m a little disappointed that I missed (the meet record) by a little bit, but I think what’s most important is that I managed to clinch a new PB,” he said.
Jonathan’s improvement in the 100m butterfly was rather tremendous – before this meet, he had never gone below 59 seconds – yet he clocked 57.53s in the morning heats before lowering it further to 57.33s in the final.
He added that his immediate goal this year is to gain automatic qualification for the Junior Pan Pacific Championships to be held this August in Hawaii. The closest he has gotten so far to the ‘A’ qualifying time was in the 400m freestyle two days ago, when he clocked 4:07.95 to miss the ‘A’ cut by a mere 0.1 seconds.
The 400m freestyle was one of the events where he set a new meet record – the remaining two being the 50m butterfly and the 200m freestyle.
Meanwhile, Dylan Koo, 16, of Swimfast Aquatic Club (SAC) fractionally missed the Olympic ‘B’ qualifying time for the 100m butterfly by one-hundredth of a second, as he clocked a blistering 54.20s.
Nonetheless, his timing was still a personal best – improving from a pre-meet 55.01s and a 54.73s in the morning heats – and also shattered the meet record for the 15-17 years old category, which stood at 56.09s set by Jerryl Yong in 2013.
Dylan, though, was adamant that he was not looking to meet the Olympic ‘B’ cut in the first place, as both Joseph Schooling and Quah Zheng Wen have already met the ‘A’ timing for the event and are headed to Rio ahead of him. Instead, he was looking to automatically qualify for the Junior Pan Pacific meet in August – which he did.
He commented, “(Instead of aiming for the Olympic ‘B’ mark) I was just focusing on getting a new personal best, which I did in the end. If I had met the Rio ‘B’ time, though, that would of course have been something great. But even though I didn’t make it, I do not feel disappointed at all because I have already done what I came to this meet for, and I already know what I can improve on. After all, this is just a qualification meet – the Junior Pan Pacific meet in August would be the one that I have to do very, very well in – so this was just a preparation.”
The ACS(I) Year 5 student, who turns 17 in May, clocked 23.52s and 23.48s in the 50m freestyle final and heats respectively to also meet the Junior Pan Pacific ‘A’ qualifying mark of 23.54s. Apart from the 50m freestyle and 100m butterfly, he has also gained automatic qualification for the meet in the 200m butterfly.
Quah Zheng Wen, 19, broke two meet records in the same evening with 2:02.65 and 52.86s swims in the 200m individual medley and 100m butterfly respectively. His timings for both events rewrote his own meet records (2:03.38 and 53.42s) set last year. Both also dipped under the Olympic ‘B’ timings.
This was not the first time that Zheng Wen has met the ‘B’ timing for the 200m IM, while he has in fact already met the Olympic ‘A’ cut in the 100m butterfly with a 52.25s swim at the FINA World Cup last year.
Lionel Khoo, 20, who broke the 100m breaststroke national open record the previous night, this time failed to lower his current national mark in the 200m breaststroke which stands at 2:16.66. He clocked a commendable 2:16.92, which was his second fastest ever, but it would also mean that he failed to meet the Olympic ‘B’ cut of 2:16.27 for the event.
The SNAG championships reaches its final day tomorrow, March 20.
Boys/Men Results – Seniors Day 4
Boys 13-14 50m Freestyle
1st Jonathan Tan — 23.98 seconds (Meet Record)
2nd Tokuma Nishino (JPN) — 25.24
3rd Glen Lim Jun Wei — 25.34
Men 15-17 50m Freestyle
1st Dylan Koo Longhai — 23.52 seconds
2nd Kohtaroh Horiai (JPN) — 23.82
3rd Takumi Imajo (JPN) — 24.02
4th Bryant Low Zi Xuan — 24.64
Men 18 & Over 50m Freestyle
1st Lin Chien Liang (TPE) — 22.96 seconds
2nd Wang Yu Lian (TPE) — 23.15
3rd Chang Kuo Chi (TPE) — 23.25
4th Benedict Boon Ji Chao — 23.84
5th Nathan Wong — 23.98
Boys 13-14 200m Individual Medley
1st Glen Lim Jun Wei — 2:12.52
2nd Naoki Kon (JPN) — 2:14.33
3rd Rhys Ng Jun Kai — 2:17.16
Men 15-17 200m Individual Medley
1st Darren Chua — 2:06.42
2nd Ikuta Fujiwara (JPN) — 2:07.30
3rd Shuto Endo (JPN) — 2:10.49
Men 18 & Over 200m Individual Medley
1st Quah Zheng Wen — 2:02.65 (Meet Record)
2nd Wen Ren Hau (TPE) — 2:02.78
3rd An Ting Yao (TPE) — 2:04.11
5th Malcolm Low Wei Yang — 2:08.63
Boys 13-14 200m Breaststroke
1st Nicholas Cheong Ee Seng — 2:36.50
2nd Goh Jeng Yee — 2:36.73
3rd Russell Ngoo Jia Hao — 2:37.85
Men 15-17 200m Breaststroke
1st Takumi Asai (JPN) — 2:17.42
2nd Tomohiro Shimono (JPN) — 2:19.79
3rd Brilliant Chua — 2:21.03
4th Samuel Khoo — 2:21.19
5th Adam Tan Kai Jun — 2:26.00
Men 18 & Over 200m Breaststroke
1st Kevin Cordes (USA) — 2:13.45
2nd Lionel Khoo Chien Yin — 2:16.92
3rd Lee Hsuan Yen (TPE) — 2:17.11
Boys 13-14 100m Butterfly
1st Jonathan Tan — 57.33
2nd Rhys Ng Jun Kai — 59.29
3rd Damian Ho — 1:02.39
Men 15-17 100m Butterfly
1st Dylan Koo Longhai — 54.20 (Meet Record)
2nd Kohtaroh Horiai (JPN) — 54.85
3rd Donovan Lee Chuen Jin — 55.34
Men 18 & Over 100m Butterfly
1st Quah Zheng Wen — 52.86 (Meet Record)
2nd Takumi Okamoto (JPN) — 54.52
3rd Keith Lim (MAS) — 55.36
5th Oh Yao Jie — 57.70
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