Lionel Khoo sets second national record at FINA World Cup

SINGAPORE - National swimmer Lionel Khoo is currently in record-breaking form at the Singapore leg of the FINA/airweave Swimming World Cup at the OCBC Aquatic Centre.

The 21-year-old set his second national record in as many days when he rewrote the national 100m breaststroke mark in Saturday morning's heats (Oct 22).

Khoo clocked 1min 00.46sec to erase his previous national record of 1:00.66 and advance into the evening's final as the seventh-fastest qualifier.

He then clocked the same time in the final to finish eighth.

It was Khoo's second national record at the meet after he broke his own national 200m breaststroke record hours earlier on Friday.

He clocked 2min 11.80sec to finish fifth, beating his previous mark of 2:12.47, which he had set at the national championships last December.

While Khoo was pleased that he managed to set a second national record, he was also a little wistful that he was not able to go faster and break the one-minute mark. "I've been aiming to break the one-minute barrier for a few years now. It's been an elusive target and my aim now is to do it at the World Championships in December.

"I could have done it tonight but a couple of things went wrong during the race (in the final). But I'm not making any excuses."

All photos: Singapore Swimming Association