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KORAT, Thailand: She is the captain of the Singapore swimming team here at the 24th SEA Games, and Nicolette Teo is definitely taking her job seriously.
On Monday, she steamed to an individual gold in the women's 200m breastroke, before helping the 4x100m medley relay team touch home first with a new SEA Games record of 4:13.18sec, bettering the previous mark set by the Republic's women at the 2005 Games in Manila.
The two-gold haul means the Singapore team have already surpassed their eight-gold target by one, and there is one day to go.
Tuesday's final day of competition will see six golds on offer and the Republic could well see a bunch of swimmers get to the top step and push them into double figures for wins.
Little wonder Team Singapore chef-de-mission Low Teo Ping has revised his gold medal target from "35-45" to at least 38.
Teo said Monday the tally could even surpass what was achieved in Manila two years ago when Singapore brought home 42 golds.
Teo's time of 2:31.96 in the 200m breastroke saw her make the 'B' cut for next August's Beijing Olympics.
The 21-year-old had already made the 'B' cut in the 100m breaststroke, which she won on Saturday.
She also came agonisingly close — a mere 0.06secs, to be exact — to breaking the 2001 SEA Games record in the 200m breaststroke set by Malaysia's Siow Yi Ting, who took silver on Monday.
Teo actually trailed Siow for 170m before she dug deep and powered ahead to touch home 0.59sec ahead of her rival.
"I only knew I was second at one point in the race, on the turn at the 100m point, because that was the only time I faced her," said Teo, who started in lane five.
Siow was in lane three, with bronze medallist Jacyln Pangilinan from the Philippines in between them.
"I couldn't see Yi Ting, but that was the plan for me anyway, to go in and swim my race," said Teo.
"So, I just got to the wall at the end of the race and it was, like, okay … and then I turned to the scoreboard …" said the UCLA senior, who then laughed as words eluded her.
While the triumph in the medley relay saw Tao Li go to three golds so far here, Teo's two gold medals in the breaststroke events also brings her personal tally to three.
"Yeah, it's a good outing for me, I'm really, really happy," she said. "I've never won both the 100m and 200m breaststroke events at the same Games.
"And it's great to have qualified for the Olympics in both events. I'm so proud to get to represent Singapore in my third Olympics Games.
"I've been thinking about it now that I'm older, and, wow, I really am lucky. Not many people have this opportunity."
- TODAY/ac
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