Singapore’s NTC Squad Roster Released

The Singapore Swimming Association has announced the members of its ‘National Training Center Squad’ or ‘NTC Squad’ for the 2015/16 season.  Still in its infancy, the NTC squad concept itself was started in January of this year and is led by Head Coach Sergio Lopez, along with coach Gary Tan and other Singapore Science Institute staff. 

The new squad has some familiar members that have made their names known through key swims over the summer. Danny Yeo earned a silver medal recently at the FINA World Cup Singapore stop, tying Japanese swimmer Masato Sakai in the men’s 200 freestyle (1:51.07).  Quah Zheng Wen also made waves at that meet, clinching two silver medals in the 100 butterfly and 50m backstroke events.  Quah Zheng Wen was earlier awarded a military deferment from the Singaporean government, which allows the swimmer to exempt from his military duty while training for the Olympics.

A new name on the list is that of Swimfast Aquatic Club’s Zachary Ian Tan.  The youngster broke through in a major way at the Singapore National Age Group Swimming Championships this past March, breaking a total of 11 age group meet records.  En route to earning the recognition of “Most Valuable Swimmer” at the meet, Zachary Ian Tan broke the 400m IM record with his new time of 4:48.84, with the old mark of 5:14.75 notably held by Singaporean superstar and University of Texas student-athlete Joseph Schooling.

The NTC squad’s selection is based up on the top 10 junior swimmers and distance swimmers by FINA points and applicants are considered by both NTC coaches as it pertains to the National 2020 goals, according to Swimming Singapore’s release.

Note: American Kevin Cordes was already announced in May of this year as being selected as the first foreign athlete to be accepted in the new collaborative foreign athlete sparring program between Singapore Swimming Association and Singapore Sports Institute.