Quah Ting Wen experienced a night of disappointment at the Singapura Finance 47th Singapore National Age Group (Snag) Swimming Championships.
She narrowly missed out on the Olympics ‘A’ cut for the 50m freestyle. Her time of 25.54sec was just 0.26sec over the required time.
“I know I have it in me to make the ‘A’ cut,” she said. “The race was fine, I just messed up the start. If not for that, I think I could have come close to 25.3 seconds.”
In her second event of the night, the 100m butterfly, her time of 59.38sec was not enough to meet the ‘A’ cut of 58.74sec.
“I’m glad that I went faster than in the heats. However, I was a little bit tired at the end, so I didn’t bring it home as well as I wanted to.”
While Quah had hoped for better times, she was nevertheless pleased. The 23-year-old said: “I have mixed feelings. It’s nice to consistently set fast times, but this year being the Olympic year, you are trying to make it onto the team.”
Coach Sergio Lopez was slightly disappointed that Quah did not make the ‘A’ cut.
“I am a little sad for her. However, her times were only a little bit off the ‘A’ cut, so hopefully that will help her qualify for the Olympics.
“She swam in both the 200m freestyle and the 200m butterfly yesterday, so the stress of that may have taken a toll on her. But she really put herself out there and did a really good job.”
Quah Zheng Wen had another strong showing at the Snag.
He emerged triumphant from a close-fought race in the 200m individual medley.
His time of 2min2.65sec was enough to give him the win over Wen Ren Hau of Chinese Taipei, who swam a time of 2:02.78. In the process, he broke his own meet record, lowering his 2:03.38 mark set at last year’s meet.
He repeated his winning ways in the 100m butterfly, coming in first with a timing of 52.86sec.
Just as in the individual medley, he broke his own meet record set last year. He had earlier met the ‘A’ qualifying time for this event at the Fina World Cup in Dubai last year.
Lopez believes that Quah’s performance has set him in good stead for the Olympics.
He said: “He will definitely need rest. After this meet, we will start the final cycle of training before the Olympics. He knows I am going to push him very hard. But he is a competitor, so I am not worried about him.”
aleysaj@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on March 20, 2016.
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