Ting Wen disappointed, despite meeting Olympic 'B' standard
Singapore's Quah Ting Wen wore a disappointed expression after clocking 1min 59.75sec in the women's 200m freestyle final at the Singapura Finance 47th Singapore National Age-Group Swimming Championships at the OCBC Aquatic Centre. She had to be consoled by national coach Sergio Lopez, his assistant Gary Tan, and Singapore Swimming Association high-performance manager Sonya Porter.
The timing meant she became the 100th-ranked swimmer in the event during the qualifying period for this year's Olympics in Rio from Aug 5-21.
Sixty-six swimmers on the list have made the "A" timings, which guarantee them a spot in Rio, while world swimming body Fina will disburse Olympic spots to "B" qualifiers according to the rankings in the respective events.
Said Quah: "I am having mixed feelings; it was nice to see '1' instead of '2' at the start of my timing, but I was hoping to go a bit faster.
"I think I swam the race better tonight, but I could have gone out a bit faster and still come back as fast as I did," added the 23-year-old, who clocked 2:00.09 in yesterday morning's heats.
"I wouldn't say that I am going for sure (to the Olympics)... but it's nice to know that I am closer.
"I still have three more events (50m and 100m freestyle and 100m butterfly)... and I am confident in all my events.
"I am fit, I am ready, I think I can drop time in all my events, it's just a matter of how much."
Meanwhile, breaststroke specialist Lionel Khoo rewrote Parker Lam's men's 100m breaststroke national record of 1:02.65 with a 1:02.26 effort last night.
RECORD
His time was below the Olympic "B" cut of 1:02.69.
The 22-year-old said: "I am very happy, although my expectations were to break the 1:02 barrier.
"But, seeing it's been four years since I did a best time in the event, I am very happy that at least I am on the right track right now."
National coach Lopez was happy for both Quah and Khoo, and agreed that both could have clocked better timings.
He said: "Based on how the kids have done in training, some of them should have been on a higher level. But we will stay the course and keep doing what we are doing, and I think when we go to the Olympics, we will have very good swims."
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