SINGAPORE – Sporting history has been made again, this time during the Paralympics Games where Singapore para-swimmer Yip Pin Xiu broke the world record in the 100m backstroke S2 event on Saturday (Sept 10).
The 24-year-old won Gold for Singapore with her world record timing of 2min 7.09sec at the Olympic Aquatic Stadium in Rio, beating China’s Feng Yazhu (2min 18.65sec) and Ukraine’s Iryna Sotska (2min 21.98sec) in the process.
The student at Singapore Management University was so fast that she concurrently set a backstroke record at the 50m mark with her split timing of 59.38s.
Following her feat, Majulah Singapura was played for the second time in Brazil, after Joseph Schooling won Singapore’s first-ever Olympic gold medal last month in the men’s 100m butterfly.
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President Dr Tony Tan congratulated Yip on Facebook and expressed his hope for a strong showing from Singapore’s 12 other para-athletics competing in sports like equestrian, archery, athletics, and sailing.
“When I met Pin Xiu during her training in June, she was still very modest about her chances, but told me she will do her best. She certainly did her best today,” Dr Tan wrote.
Writing on Yip’s win on his Facebook page, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong added: “Her amazing achievement reminds us that with hard work, determination and grit, we can overcome the odds and come out on top. Pin Xiu, you have made Singapore very proud today.
Yip was born with muscular dystrophy which weakens her muscles progressively.
She competes in the S2 class – a classification system in Paralympic swimming for athletes based on their physical impairment.
Singapore’s first Paralympic medal also came from Yip in 2008 in the same colour – Gold – in the 50m Backstroke S3 category.
Other world records she smashed include the 50m and 100m S2 backstroke events at the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Swimming European Open Championships in May, and the 50m backstroke S2 event at the last December’s ASEAN para Games.
There will be another shot for glory this Friday (Sept 16) as Yip competes in the 50m backstroke S2 event.
grongloh@sph.com.sg
AFP
