Singapore swimmer Gan Ching Hwee sets new 1,500m free national record at Olympics, just misses out on final

PARIS: Moments after she topped her heat and set a new personal best as well as new national record, Gan Ching Hwee was a picture of unbridled joy.

“It's quite hard to put into words honestly,” she later told reporters after her 30-lap swim in the women’s 1,500m freestyle at the Paris La Defense arena on Tuesday (Jul 30).

“I just really came in here to swim free, loose and be happy. Enjoy every minute of it which I did and I'm very happy with the result.”

Gan's time of 16:10.13 in the 1,500m freestyle heats meant that she topped her heat and eclipsed her old national record and personal best set last month (16:10.61).

She finished ninth overall and missed out on a place in the final by just one spot. She was less than 1.5 seconds slower than the last swimmer to qualify for the final. 

Gan will now be a reserve for the final. There is no semi-finals in the 1,500m event, with the top eight moving on to the final round. 

This is the first national record set by a Singaporean female Olympian swimmer at the Games since Tao Li (100m backstroke) in 2012.

The 21-year-old hadn’t been expecting to break the national record. 

“My goal was really to win the heat and I did so that was one kind of milestone achieved. I was very happy with it. My first instinct wasn't really to look at the time honestly,” she said.

“It was more secondary to me coming into today's race because I just really want to be competitive in terms of placing and move up the ranks as best as I can.”

Gan will also swim in two other events in Paris  – the 800m on Friday and the 4x100 medley relay on Saturday. 

She had only last month been confirmed to compete at the Games, having made the Olympics Consideration Time, also known as the "B" cut, in the 1,500m event. Gan was selected to replace Quah Ting Wen in the relay team.

"Inevitably the lead-up to the Games can be up and down. But I feel that the moment I jump into the pool, it's something I'm so used to day in day out," said Gan.

"My coaches really kept me in check, reminding me that I just need to keep on putting in the work ... noise is really secondary ... A happy swimmer is always a faster swimmer."

Earlier in the day, Jonathan Tan clocked a time of 49.60s to finish 38th out of 79 swimmers in the 100m freestyle. Only the top 16 move on to the next round.

The national record (48.27s) in the event was set eight years ago at the Rio Olympics by Joseph Schooling. 

Tan finished sixth in the event at last year’s Asian Games with a time of 48.94. He will turn his attention next to the 50m freestyle which he qualified for by meeting the ‘A’ cut time.

On Sunday, Letitia Sim made her Games debut in the 100m breaststroke where she clocked a time of 1.07.75 to finish 25th overall.

The 21-year-old had qualified for the event by meeting the ‘A’ cut mark with a national record of 1:06.36 last year.

She will next take to the pool in the 200m breaststroke on Wednesday.