16th SINGAPORE NATIONAL SWIMMING C’SHIPS (SNSC)
- June 23rd – June 27th
- OCBC Aquatic Centre
- Olympic & SEA Games Qualifier
- Results
The 16th Singapore National Swimming Championships wrapped up over the weekend at OCBC Aquatic Centre. A national record bit the dust as swimmers vied not only for Southeast Asian Games, Asian Youth Games and FINA World Championships qualification but also last-call qualification for next month’s Olympic Games.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, only the top 24 swimmers per gender per event were invited to compete at this 5-day affair.
Right off the bat on day 1, 20-year-old Maximillian Ang lowered his won national record in the men’s 200m breaststroke, snagging gold in 2:13.27. That hacked nearly half a second off of his previous PB and Singaporean standard of 2:13.68 hit at the Singapore National Age Group Championships this past March.
On his swim, Ang stated afterward, “I was a little disappointed when I saw my time because I expected a better time, but at the same time it is an improvement, and it is a step forward which I am happy and serves as a stepping stone for me to do better times in future. The race was not perfect, as there are still some technical aspects of my swim that I still need to improve on, such as my pullouts and breakouts, so I am pretty confident I am able to go faster in the future.”
But the Aquatic Masters Swim Club ace wasn’t done, clinching his spot on the SEA Games roster in the 100m breaststroke as well. He hit a mark of 1:01.87 to clear the SEA Games ‘A’ cut of 1:01.98 with .11 to spare. His outing fell just .26 shy of Lionel Khoo’s 1breast national record that’s been on the boos since 2018.
29-year-old Quah Ting Wen took her spot on the SEA Games squad with a victory in the women’s 100m freestyle. She nabbed the gold in a time of 55.44, well ahead of runner-up Cheryl Yeoh.
“The more immediate focus for this meet for everyone was the Tokyo Olympics, because if we made the Tokyo cuts, then it will also be the SEA Games cuts. It is nice to get the SEA Games qualification out of the way.”
She added, “I have been enjoying this meet, it has been more enjoyable compared to other meets, just because of the way I have been approaching this meet, doing the best that we can, to try to put what we have done in training into the race and see if it works and try not to overthink it too much.”