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.