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FRESH FACES
(Swimmers Shana Lim & Russell Ong Make A Splash)
By Joshua Tan
Swimmers Nicholas Ho, 12, and Quah Ting Wen, 14, may be the stars of the Singapore team with seven gold medals each at the recent South-east Asia Age-Group Championships held on home ground. Look deeper, however, and one notes that Shana Lim (pix), 13, and Russell Ong , 17, made a splash too.
Great Potential
Shana, with her time of 1:05.76, may lose to Ting Wen (1:05.69) in the Girls' 13-14 years category 100m back. But she certainly showed great potential as her effort also smashed the old mark set by Cheryl Tang (1:06.94) way back in 1993. In the process, the youngster beat the 'B' qualifying time (1:05.93) for December's SEA Games in Korat, Thailand.
Good Form
On his part, Russell, who has shown good form this season, also beat a SEA Games qualifying mark. In the 50m free for the 15-17 years group, he clocked 23.67 secs to go below the 'B' qualifying time (23.82) and smash the old mark set in 1992 by Philippines' Raymond Papa (24.36).
Fine Performances
The fine performances of these youngsters enabled Sinapore to top the medal tally with 38 gold, 27 silver and 23 bronze medals. They and their team mates hope to carry their good form to next month's National Championships. Ting Wen, for example, wants to do well in events like the 400m free and 800m free. She should be all fired up as her 400m free national mark was recently broken by US-based Lynette Lim.
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