Swimmer Quah sets national men’s 100m backstroke record

SINGAPORE — National swimmer Quah Zheng Wen continued his rich vein of form ahead of the June’s South-east Asian (SEA) Games, setting a national record in the men’s 100m backstroke this morning (April 1, Singapore time) at the Spanish Open in Malaga.

The 18-year-old — part of the Singapore national training squad at the Spanish Open which concluded this morning — clocked 55.69secs to better the previous national mark of 55.86 which he set two weeks ago at the Singapura Finance National Age-Group (SNAG) Championships in Singapore.

Quah’s time placed him fourth in the event, with Spaniards Juan Miguel Rando winning in 54.51, and Juan Gutierrez Segura and Hugo Gonzalez de Oliveira taking second (54.62) and third (55.35) respectively.

Quah became the first Singaporean swimmer to go under the Olympic “A” qualifying mark when he won the 200m butterfly event at the Spanish Open last Saturday. He dipped below the event’s “A” qualifying time of 1:56.97 after clocking 1:56.85.

At the SNAG Championships two weeks ago, Quah set national records in the men’s 50m back, 100m back and 100m freestyle events.

Quah is entered for 10 individual events, and three relays for the June’s SEA Games, but is expected to drop some of his events after discussing the matter with Singapore national head coach Sergio Lopez.