Teong Tzen Wei Becomes Singapore’s First-Ever Sub-22 Second 50 Freestyler

2021 (2022) SOUTHEAST ASIAN GAMES

The swimming competition at the 2021 (2022) Southeast Asian (SEA) Games concluded last night in Hanoi, Vietnam with the nation of Singapore clinching its reign atop the overall medal table.

Singapore ultimately concluded with a total of 44 medals, comprised of 21 gold, 11 silver and 12 bronze. Behind the consecutive champions was Vietnam who amassed 25 medals in all, while Thailand rounded out the top 3 with 22 medals on the meet.

To close out the multi-day elite affair, Singapore’s Gan Ching Hwee completed her impressive sweep of the women’s freestyle distance events taking the 800m free title.

Stopping the clock in a time of 8:42.60,  the 18-year-old captured her 5th gold medal, adding this event to her previous wins this week in the 200m free, 400m free, and 1500m free.

Her results this week are a carryover from a successful freshman season at Indiana University in the United States, where she placed 3rd in the Big Ten in the 1650 yard freestyle after making her debut for the team in January. She raced at the NCAA Championships, earning Honorable Mention All-America honors in the same event, and shortly thereafter rolled into a best time in long course in the 400 IM at the Pro Swim Series meet in San Antonio.

Letitia Sim also got on the board for Singapore on the last night, taking the women’s 100m breast in a time of 1:08.79. She adds that to her 50m breast gold and 200m breast bronze, as well as her 200m IM silver and 400m medley relay gold.

Finally, for Singapore, standout Teong Tzen Wei notched a national record en route to topping the men’s 50m free podium.

24-year-old Teong touched in a time of 21.93 to become his nation’s first-ever sub-22 50m freestyle, adding this Singaporean standard to the 50m fly Games Record he already notched earlier in the meet.

Entering this meet, Teong’s personal best in this splash n’ dash rested at the 22.39 he notched just this past March. The national record stood at the 22.12 Jonathan Tan clocked last year.

With one swim, Teong crushed both en route to making Singaporean history.

Post-race Teong said, “It feels like miracles do happen. I’d like to thank all the people who’ve helped me in the past, in my journey to reach this goal. It’s a big moment for me, I’ll soak it in, move on so I can achieve better things in the future.”

Singapore’s national team coach Gary Tan added, “When we saw 21.9 it was crazy and amazing to see him get that mark. It’s something we were working towards and hoping that Jonathan would get there, but I’m glad someone dipped below that 22… I cannot ask for more.”

Additional Winners:

  • Nguyễn Huy Hoàn of Vietnam came out on top of the men’s 800m free, touching in 7:57.65 for a 1-2 punch with teammate Nguyễn Hữu Kim Sơn who secured silver in 8:04.23.
  • Nguyễn was also the men’s 200m fly winner, clocking 1:58.81 to grab his second gold of the final night of competition. All told, Nguyễn captured 4 individual golds, including the 400m free, 800m free, 1500m free and 200 fly.
  • Singaporean siblings Quah Jing Wen and Quah Ting Wen went 1-2 in the women’s 100m fly, with the former grabbing gold in 59.15 to the latter’s 59.34. The pair represented the only swimmers of the field to notch times under the 1:00 barrier.

 

Final 2021 (2022) SEA Games Overall Swimming Medal Table

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Nelson Silva
1 year ago

Well done guys!!

About Retta Race

Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having just earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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