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SINGAPORE : If Singapore swim star Quah Ting Wen goes on to dominate the Asian Youth Games swimming competition, she will have to thank the crowd at the Singapore Sports School for playing their part.
On Friday, the 17-year-old grabbed her first gold medal in a thrilling win.
She came from behind to clinch the girls' 200m freestyle gold with a new national record of 1:59.21s, breaking her previous national mark of 2:00.14 set three weeks ago at the Singapore National Swimming Championship.
South Korea's Kim Jung Hye (1:59.93) and Kim Seo Yeong (2:01.92) had to settle for silver and bronze, respectively.
Ting Wen's gold capped a fruitful outing for the hosts in the pool, after three bronze medals from Lionel Khoo (boys' 50m breaststroke), Roanne Ho (girls' 50m breaststroke) and Rainer Ng (boys' 100m backstroke).
Feeding off the crowd Ting Wen, the holder of four individual national records, trailed Jung Hye for two-thirds of the race.
But by the 150m mark, she had caught up to within 0.01s of the Korean, hitting the final turn at 1:28.88 to set up a thrilling finale in front of nearly 1,000 spectators.
"A lot was going through my mind (in the final 50m)," said Ting Wen.
"To my left, I could see my team-mates, to my right, I could see the spectators. All that pushed me to go as fast as I could. It's a load off my shoulders now as it was a big event for me."
Former Singapore backstroke star David Lim, her coach at Swimfast Aquatic Club, was never in any doubt.
"At the Singapore National Championships recently, she went out too fast and didn't have enough gas on the return," said Lim, who expects this result to improve Ting Wen's current world No 56 ranking.
"So my instructions was for her to save herself in the first 100m, and kick-in the last 50. And it was made easier as she is the type who follows instructions."
Ting Wen leaves for Rome on July 20 for the Fina World Championship, where she will compete in the 50m, 100m, 200m and 400m freestyle events.
But before that, she has some work to do here, with more events for her.
Ting Wen, who will race in the girls' 50m freestyle heats on Saturday, said: "Winning my first gold medal at the Asian Youth Games means a lot to me. It's just amazing." - TODAY /ls
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