Young Gan breaks second national record in two months
Less than two months after breaking a national record, Singapore youth swimmer Gan Ching Hwee did it again.
On Tuesday, the 15-year-old clocked 8min 44.69 sec in the women's 800m freestyle heats at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to erase the national girls' Under-17 mark of 8:45.46 which Lynette Lim held for 10 years.
Ching Hwee's effort - a personal best for the long-distance specialist - was good enough to place her sixth out of 21 swimmers.
She said: "I'm quite pleased with my race today, and I'm actually surprised that I managed to hit a personal best and break the record, given the circumstances I had to deal with, like the time difference."
Her latest achievement followed another record-smashing feat at the Asian Games in August. Then, Ching Hwee - the youngest athlete of the Singapore contingent in Indonesia - clocked 16min 39.7sec in the women's 1,500m freestyle, eclipsing a nine-year-old record also held by Lim.
Meanwhile, at the table tennis arena, paddler Koen Pang missed out on a place in the men's singles semi-finals after losing to second seed Jha Kanak of the United States in the quarter-finals.
Earlier in the Round of 16 on Tuesday, the 16-year-old had defeated Iran's Ahmadian Amin 4-0.
Said Koen: "I felt I played quite well, but the opponent definitely played better than me. I had more mistakes, while he didn't really have any and he played to my weakness.
"My expectations were to take it one step at a time and not rush things. Just being able to win a knockout round is really good at this level."
Meanwhile, fellow paddler Goi Rui Xuan lost 4-1 to the United States' Amy Wang in the women's Round of 16.
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