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PARIS: Yan Jinghui’s face was filled with joy after she won the preliminary round and set a personal best and national record.
“It’s hard to put into words, to be honest,” she told reporters after swimming 30 laps in the women’s 1500m freestyle at the La Défense stadium in Paris on Tuesday (July 30).
“I really just came here to be free, relaxed and have fun swimming. I enjoyed every minute of it and I’m really happy with the result.”
Gan won the 1500m freestyle preliminaries in 16:10.13, breaking both the national record and personal best she set last month (16:10.61).
She finished ninth, missing out on qualifying for the final by just one point. She will compete in the final as an alternate.
There will be no semifinals in the 1500m event, with the top eight advancing to the next round.
This is the first national record set by a Singaporean female Olympic swimmer at this Games since Tao Li (100m backstroke) in 2012.
The 21-year-old didn’t expect to break the national record.
“My goal was actually to win the heats, and I did that, so that was kind of a milestone that I achieved. I’m really happy about that. My first reaction wasn’t really to look at the time honestly,” she said.
“For me, playing in today’s tournament was more secondary because I just wanted to be competitive in the rankings and move up as high as I can.”
Gan will also compete in two other swimming events in Paris – the 800m on Friday and the 4×100 medley relay on Saturday.
Just last month she Confirm your participation in the competitionentered the Olympic consideration period in the 1500m, also known as the “B” category. Gan was selected to replace Ke Tingwen in the relay.
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