S’pore swim team exceeded expectations: Lopez

SINGAPORE — With the World Championships in August and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro exactly a year after that, Singapore national swim team head coach Sergio Lopez believes the current team holds plenty of potential.

On the final day of the six-day SEA Games swimming competition at OCBC Aquatic Centre last night, Singapore bagged four more golds to top the medal standings for swimming with 23 gold, 12 silver and seven bronze medals. It also meant the nation surpassed its previous best performance of 21 gold medals in swimming set at the 1973 SEAP Games.

Vietnam was second overall with a 10-2-4 medal haul, while third-place Malaysia had a 3-4-4 haul.

Speaking after last night’s races, Lopez, who was appointed Singapore’s national head coach in January, said his charges exceeded his expectations in these Games.

“But I think this is not the top yet,” Lopez told TODAY. “This (23 gold medals) is a good thing for us, and if we think this is the top, we will not get better. I think a lot of the other (regional) teams were surprised, and they didn’t know what we were doing here for six months. I think the team has come together (in this period), and we have talked about it that we want to see first and second in every event — doesn’t matter who is first and second.

“You can see two Singapore flags almost every time at every event (victory ceremony) ... I think as a team, they have (exceeded my expectations). I think the main thing (behind their success) is that they stay together, and cheer each other on.”

Last night, Amanda Lim claimed her fourth successive 50m freestyle title with a Games record of 25.59secs, ahead of team-mate Quah Ting Wen (25.60) and Philippines’ Jasmine Alkhaldi (25.79) who was third. That was followed by Quah Zheng Wen winning the men’s 50m backstroke, also with a Games record of 25.27. Indonesia’s I Gede Siman Sudartawa took silver (25.34), with Thailand’s Kasipat Chograthin settling for bronze (25.78).

Tao Li then clinched the women’s 50m butterfly (59.79), ahead of Ting Wen (1:00.30) and bronze medallist Alkhaldi (1:01.00) before the quartet of Joseph Schooling, Lionel Khoo, Zheng Wen and Clement Lim won the men’s 4x100m medley relay — the final race of the competition — with a Games record of 3mins 38.25secs, ahead of Indonesia (3:42.10) and bronze medallists Thailand (3:45.67).

The Singapore swim team also re-wrote a total of 24 SEA Games records, while Schooling, 19, with nine gold medals in nine events is expected to be named the top athlete of the 2015 Games.

Lopez, the 1988 Seoul Olympics men’s 200m breaststroke bronze medallist who formerly coached Schooling at the Bolles School in Florida, has drafted the one-year training plan for the Singapore swim team till the 2016 Olympics, with several training programmes lined up.

When asked what he expects of the team, the Spaniard said: “Some people want to retire and I hope some reassess that and think twice about it. We have a very young team (with an average age of) 22 years. But it’s okay too if they retire, because we move on and have young kids coming up.” ADELENE WONG