Tough meet but team leaves Hawaii on a high note

SINGAPORE — The euphoria from Joseph Schooling’s Olympic gold-medal win has barely subsided, but the Singapore Swimming Association (SSA) is already looking ahead to making another huge splash at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

As part of its plans to groom the next generation of swimmers for Tokyo, it sent 27 athletes aged between 13 and 17 to Hawaii last week to compete in the Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships (JPPC) for the first time. The annual meet features the best young swimmers from the Pan Pacific nations, including the United States, Australia and Japan,

Despite a slow start, the team still recorded a string of creditable results. Seven swimmers advanced to ‘A’ finals while 12 personal best times were set at the meet.

While national assistant swim coach Gary Tan had expected better results from his charges, he was pleased they learnt some valuable lessons from the high-level event.

“We expected faster swims, and the kids also know they could have done much better,” the two-time swim Olympian told TODAY.

“The first two days were rough for us. Being so young, they were slightly overawed by the occasion and the level of international swimmers they were up against. There was also little time for them to acclimatise to the time difference and having to compete in an outdoor pool.

“But they got better as the meet went on. They began to understand the need for more self-discipline, in terms of things like rest management. Their times also got better, which meant they were learning to cope with the pressure. So there are a lot of positives.”

One swimmer who made an ‘A’ final was Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) student Francis Fong, 16, who clocked 58.52sec to finish eighth in the 100m backstroke.

“I’m psyched that I managed to get into the ‘A’ final despite stiff competition,” said the 16-year-old whose PB is 56.78s, and also competed in the 200m backstroke and the 50m and 100m freestyle.

“It has given me a huge confidence boost. It was also interesting to observe how the international swimmers warmed up, and what their mind-set was before and during the race. These are things that I can learn. Overall, it was an eye-opening and enriching experience as I work towards my dream of competing in the Olympics.”

Tan said he would meet high-performance manager Sonya Porter and the rest of the coaches to work out a schedule to allow these swimmers to be fully prepared for the 2020 Games.

“We’re going to figure out a better, systematic schedule for our swimmers and create a plan to get them ready for Tokyo 2020,” he said. “More importantly, we need to expose them to more high-level competitions like the JPPC, because that’s how they will learn and progress.

“We need to start exploring options like sending our juniors for regional meets to compete against our neighbours’ senior swimmers. They may struggle for medals, but sometimes, it’s good to have dirt in our faces, as long as it teaches us how to compete at a higher level.

“There are also plans to establish links with Japanese swim clubs so that we can send our swimmers over for competitions or invite them here to compete with us.

“We are slowly making inroads, and we are working hard to ensure everything is in place for us to have a good Tokyo Games.”

Swimmers who achieved PBs

Maximillian Ang – 200 IM (2min 7.38s)

Christie Chue – 100m breaststroke (1min 12.07s)

Samuel Khoo – 100m breaststroke (1min 4.19s)

Donovan Lee – 100m butterfly (56.26s), 200 IM (2min 9.61s)

Elizabeth Lee – 50m freestyle (27.25s)

Jonathan Tan – 100m freestyle (57.1s), 50m freestyle (23.63s)

Nicholle Toh – 200m butterfly (2min 17.04s), 50m freestyle (26.68s)

Ryan Wee – 100m freestyle (53.2s)

Cherlyn Yeoh – 200m freestyle (2min 10.23s)

Swimmers who reached ‘A’ finals

Darren Chua – 100m freestyle (8th)

Christie Chue – 100m breaststroke (8th)

Francis Fong – 100m backstroke (8th)

Dylan Koo – 100m butterfly (8th)

Donovan Lee – 200m butterfly (8th)

Quah Jing Wen – 200m butterfly (8th), 100m butterfly (6th)

Jonathan Tan – 50m freestyle (8th)