New national record for Singapore’s Letitia Sim as China dominates Asian Games swimming

HANGZHOU: Singapore's Letitia Sim set a new national record in the women’s 50m breaststroke at the Asian Games on Sunday (Sep 24), amid a clean sweep of golds from China on day one of swimming competition.

At the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre’s aquatic arena, the Singaporean clocked a time of 31.15s to lower her previous personal best by 0.01s.

She finished seventh with China’s Tang Qianting taking gold.

“It felt okay. It didn’t feel as amazing as I wanted it to be, but I’m happy with the swim overall,” said Sim. “I felt that was setting me up really well for the 100m (breaststroke), so I’m excited about that.”

"It was nice to see a national record come from Letitia, even if it was a 0.01 PB (personal best). We'll take that in this very tough and competitive environment," added national head coach Gary Tan.

"The first pathway and journey for her is to make the first Olympic Games ... That's a big target for her and then from there, let's see where it comes."

The headlines on Sunday belonged to host nation China, whose swimmers broke four Games records and two Asian records on the night en route to seven gold medals.

Gan Ching Hwee came close to a podium finish for Singapore, timing 16.24.67 to finish fourth in the women’s 1500m behind China’s Li Bingjie and Gao Weizhong as well as Japan’s Yukimi Moriyama.

Li’s time of 15:51.18 was a new Games mark.

“I gave it all that I could,” said Gan. “I came to this race wanting a better finish. I think I was in contention for a medal and that was the goal for today, but obviously I didn't make it so I'm a little bit disappointed.”

In the women’s 200m butterfly, Singapore's national record holder Quah Jing Wen finished fifth in a time of 2:10.13.

Teammate Jonathan Tan finished sixth in the men’s 100m freestyle, with a time of 48.94s.

“I definitely wanted to go faster, but I think I was close to my PB,” said Tan. “I’m just going to move on and concentrate on my next few races.”

Tan won gold in the event at the 32nd SEA Games in Cambodia earlier this year with a time of 48.80s.

In the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay, the quartet of Quah Jing Wen, Quah Ting Wen, Nur Marina Chan and Amanda Lim took fourth spot in 3:44.16. China clinched gold, Japan silver and Hong Kong bronze.

"I believe and I know that all of us left everything we had out there," said Lim. "Coming in fourth is hard, but having a bronze medal, it was a long shot as well."

There was a personal best for Singapore's Asiad debutant Zackery Tay in the men’s 100m breaststroke earlier on Sunday, as he timed 57.47s to finish 14th in the heats.

The Games were officially opened by China's President Xi Jinping on Saturday night, after being delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the last edition in 2018, the Singapore swim team won six medals, including two golds. Team Singapore's overall contingent finished with four golds, four silvers and 14 bronzes.