SINGAPORE: Days after celebrating her 22nd birthday, there were more reasons for cheer for Singapore's Gan Ching Hwee as she smashed a 15-year national record on home soil at the World Aquatics Championships.
Gan, who is the current national record holder in the 800m and 1500m freestyle events, clocked a time of 4:09.81 in the women's 400m freestyle on Sunday (Jul 27).
This eclipses Lynette Lim's national mark of 4:11.24, set at the December 2009 SEA Games.
She had come into the event with an entry time of 4:12.31.
Gan finished first in her heat and finished 13th overall. United States' Katie Ledecky topped the four heats with a time of 4:01.04.
"I was very pleasantly surprised that I went below my best time by that much," Gan told reporters.
"Past a certain age, my best times have only been incrementally getting better.
"Especially the 400m, which has been quite a challenging event for me. I don't think I've made a massive breakthrough in the past few years."
The Singaporean has been in fine form in recent times.
At last year's Paris Olympics, she set two national records in the 800m freestyle and 1500m freestyle. She was the first Singaporean female swimmer do so at the Games since Tao Li (100m backstroke) in 2012.
Gan will be competing in both of these events at the meet in Singapore in the coming days.
"Every race, every meet has a different prep leading up to it, there's a different story ...It's just special to do it in front of the home and with all my friends and family," she said.
"I still need to focus on (the remaining events) ... We'll keep on keeping on."
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