Jing-E makes it a hat-trick of swim marks, lands MVP award

SINGAPORE — At the rate she is going, Tan Jing-E is fast earning a reputation for obliterating national records set by Singapore swim queens.

Last Wednesday, the 13-year-old Methodist Girls’ School Secondary 2 student broke Joscelin Yeo’s 21-year-old national Under-14 200m individual medley record of 2min 23.42sec when she clocked 2:22.58 at the 45th Singapore National Age-Group Championships (SNAG).

Last night, she destroyed another swim queen’s record when she cracked Quah Ting Wen’s U-14 400m IM mark of 5:01.40, which had been set in 2005, with her 4:58.21 effort. It was Jing-E’s third record at the SNAG — she had also broken Chan Fang Yi’s 100m backstroke mark on Thursday — and it landed the Swimfast Aquatic Club swimmer the Most Valuable Player award for her age-group (13-14 years).

Although Jing-E is too young to compete in the Youth Olympic Games, which is open to athletes 14 years and above, her coach David Lim reckons she is destined for great things in the years ahead.

“She is definitely one to look out for,” he said. “She is very tall for her age, which is a good thing for a swimmer, but we need to work on her physique more, as she needs to muscle up and lose her baby fats.”

Jing-E, who narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Commonwealth and Asian Games in August and September respectively at this meet, is now aiming to do so at June’s South-east Asian Championships.

She said: “Between now and June, I will not stress myself out too much, but just focus on my training.”

Jing-E was not the only record-breaker last night. Michael Yong set a new Boys U-14 mark in the 1,500m freestyle when he clocked 16:44.35 to snap the mark of 16:44.53 set by Sng Ju Wei in 1994. ADELENE WONG

National open records set at 45th SNAG:

Quah Zheng Wen (100m and 50m back), Danny Yeo (400m free), Roanne Ho (50m breast) U-14 records set: Tan Jing-E (200m IM, 100m back and 400m IM) Darren Chua (200m free and 200m IM) Michael Yong (1,500m free)