Ching Hwee on fire at age group c’ships, while Quah vows to improve

SINGAPORE — A day after her record-breaking swim at the China Life 48th Singapore National Age Group (SNAG) Swimming Championships, teenager Gan Ching Hwee was back in winning form at the OCBC Aquatic Centre on Wednesday night (March 15).

The 13-year-old from Methodist Girls’ School clocked 58.53s in the women’s 100m freestyle in a new meet record for the 13- to 14-year-olds category.

The second day of the seniors meet also saw a second meet record from backstroke specialist Francis Fong, as the 17-year-old touched home in 26.39s in the morning’s heats to better his previous mark of 26.52s set last year.

He went on to lower his mark in the evening’s finals, clocking 26.08s.

Twelve-time SEA Games gold medallist Quah Ting Wen also added the women’s 50m butterfly to her slate of events for the 2017 Games in Kuala Lumpur with her finals time of 27.22s.

The 24-year-old had previously qualified for a spot in the women’s 100m butterfly in Malaysia, where she will race alongside her sister Jing Wen.

Despite making the mark for the Games, Quah said yesterday that there is still room for improvement.

“I have very high expectations of myself,” she said.

“I am not very pleased that it’s not a very good time. It was nothing exceptional but the goal of this meet was to qualify for the SEA Games and I got the job done. I’m going to take it day by day, event by event and then think about the SEA Games after this is over.” LOW LIN FHOONG