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Drama before golds for ASG swimmers

Elana and Claresa go through disqualification distress before securing victory

Singapore's swimmers preserved their 100 per cent record of winning at least one Asean Schools Games gold on each competition day yesterday, but not before two best friends were put through an emotional disqualification roller-coaster to get their golds.

Elena Pedersen bounced back from being mistakenly disqualified in her morning heats to win the girls' 100m backstroke, while Claresa Liau had to wait two hours to collect her 200m breaststroke gold as Indonesian team officials furiously protested the disqualification of initial winner Azzahra Permatahani.

The two girls study together at Methodist Girls' School, train together at Chinese Swimming Club and now have won golds on the same day together.

But the 100m backstroke gold had seemed so far away yesterday morning when the two dreaded letters "DQ" had flashed beside Elena's name on the big screen at the Darul Ehsan Aquatic Centre in Shah Alam, Malaysia.

"I was really shocked because I didn't feel like I had done anything wrong," said the 13-year-old, who started tearing up in distress before the mistake was corrected.

"It was my last chance to break the national Under-14 record as I'm turning 14 soon. My heats' time (1min 07.14sec) wasn't that good and I really wanted another chance to swim."

Handed back that opportunity, the Secondary 2 student made the most of it by powering home in 1:05.22, bettering Faith Elizabeth Khoo's record of 1:05.26 set two years ago. The record is pending ratification from the Singapore Swimming Association.

For Claresa, the drama began after she had finished her swim in the 200m breaststroke final.

The 14-year-old appeared to have settled for a creditable silver behind 2017 SEA Games 400m individual medley silver medallist Azzahra, having eclipsed her previous personal best in the morning heats with a 2:36.53.

But Games officials ruled that Azzahra had not touched the wall with both hands, a decision that triggered sustained protests from the Indonesian team and delayed proceedings with five events to go.

"I am mostly happy because I got a gold which was the goal I set myself before the ASG. My PB before today was 2:39, so I was not expecting to go so much faster today," said Claresa.

"But it is quite a shame that Azzahra got disqualified because I had a great race with her and I was already happy even though she touched the wall first."

On the boys' side, Mikkel Lee continued to excel as he picked up his third gold of the Games with a 24.94sec swim in the 50m butterfly that smashed the previous meet record of 25.48.

The swimmers have accounted for half (five) of Singapore's golds at the Games.

Table tennis player Josh Chua, the hero for the boys' team on Sunday, came up just short in the singles final as he lost a close-fought battle with the Philippines' Jann Mari Nayre before losing 13-11, 11-13, 9-11, 9-11.

In netball, hosts Malaysia proved a cut above Singapore, carving out a 47-26 win in the final.

Singapore are fifth in the medal standings with 10 golds, 12 silvers and 13 bronzes. Malaysia top the table with 30 golds, 26 silvers and 25 bronzes.

The final day of competition is today, before the closing ceremony tomorrow. - LESTER WONG

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