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Disclaimer: Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The Swim of the Week is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.
Letitia Sim was one of a few different swimmers who carried their taper over from the Asian Games into the opening stop of the World Cup in Berlin incredibly well, resetting her newly-minted National Record in the women’s 200 breaststroke.
Sim, 20, set a new Singaporean Record in the event at the 2023 World Championships in July, clocking 2:27.73 to knock off her month-old mark of 2:27.91 set at the Singaporean Championships.
At the Asian Games in late September, Sim put up a time of 2:26.43 in the final, falling just two one-hundredths shy of the bronze medal while knocking off another big chunk from her lifetime best and National Record time.
In Berlin, the University of Michigan athlete leveled up once again, this time in a big way, as she dropped more than two seconds off her previous mark set just 11 days prior in 2:24.15, placing 3rd behind Tes Schouten and Jenna Strauch.
The big difference for Sim was the middle 100, where she split 1:13.20 after going 1:14.79 between the 50 and 150-meter marks less than two weeks ago in Hangzhou.
Split Comparison
| Sim, 2023 Asian Games | Sim, 2023 World Cup – Berlin |
| 32.95 | 32.86 |
| 1:10.19 (37.24) | 1:09.33 (36.47) |
| 1:47.74 (37.55) | 1:46.06 (36.73) |
| 2:26.43 (38.69) | 2:24.15 (38.09) |
Entering 2023, the Singaporean Record stood at 2:28.71 from Christie Chue in 2019, and Sim has now lowered it five times in the last five months.
Sim also set a new National Record of 1:07.13 in the 100 breast at the Asian Games, and established Singaporean marks of 31.16 in the 50 breast and 2:14.49 in the 200 IM earlier this year.
She is scheduled to race the 100 breast on Saturday and the 200 IM on Sunday.
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Shocking. Unbelievable.
That’s an insane time drop whoa