Gan Ching Hwee breaks 2 national records, qualifies for World Aquatics C'ships 1,500m final
SINGAPORE – Singapore's distance swimming queen Gan Ching Hwee continued to make strides in the pool on July 28, when the 22-year-old smashed two more national records and clinched a spot in the 1,500m freestyle final at the World Aquatics Championships (WCH).
Her time of 16min 1.29sec in the heats – almost nine seconds under the 16:10.13 she swam in the Paris 2024 Olympics heats to narrowly miss the final – also earned her a spot in the championships final as the fastest Asian swimmer.
Swimming in Heat 2 at the WCH Arena, she touched the wall third behind Australia's Lani Pallister (15:46.95) and Italy's defending champion Simona Quadarella (15:47.43).
She placed fourth out of 27 athletes overall, as American legend Katie Ledecky topped Heat 3 in 15:36.68 to qualify for the July 29 final.
Gan's front 800m split of 8:29.93 was also a new national record – her previous best in Paris 2024 was 8:32.37. It was the Singaporean's third national records in two days, after she won her 400m freestyle heat and finished 13th overall in a new mark of 4:09.81 on July 27. Lynette Lim's previous record of 4:11.24 was set in 2009.
She told The Straits Times: 'I don't think it has sunk it that much yet. The race was quite exhausting, I gave it my absolute all, and I couldn't have asked for a better outcome. I wasn't expecting to break the 800m free national record, and didn't know until I was on the way back from the pool.
'After how close I came in Paris, that definitely gave me a lot of motivation going into this race to be in the top eight. This being my first WCH final, coming 36 hours after the heats, I don't want to set any expectations, I just want to do my best and work on the small details that were lacking from the heats.'
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Gan's performance in the 1,500m heats was all the more impressive as her timing was the quickest among the Asian swimmers, which included Asian Games champion Li Bingjie (16:02.31) and Japan's open water swimming champion Ichika Kajimoto (16:09.65), who won the 3km knockout sprint on July 19.
In placing fourth overall in the heats, she was also ahead of Russia's Olympic silver medallist Anastasiia Kirpichnikova (16:06.97), and bronze medallist Isabel Gose (16:08.41) of Germany, who was in Gan's heat and did not make the final.
Gan said: 'Knowing that there were so many big names in my heat inspired me – if they can do what they have done, then what's holding me back from improving my times as well and get closer to them than I used to be, which was like a full minute behind?
'But during the race, I didn't think about who I was racing against. If I see someone, I was just going to give chase and hope for the best. I don't think the heats really mean that much more than making the final, because many of them have faster times and more experience doing heats and finals, while this is my first and I'm still learning as I'm going.'
National swimming head coach and performance director Gary Tan credited Gan's family, her Singapore Swimming Club coach Eugene Chia and Singapore Aquatics technical consultant Sonya Porter for the swimmer's upward trajectory. She has shaved more than half a minute off her 1,500m time since 2022.
He said: 'Her latest times are quite timely ahead of the 2026 Asian Games, which will be a good marker to see what is to come from her future.'
Chia shared that they have always had an Asian Games medal, the Olympics and WCH finals in their sights.
He said: 'She has been swimming well, and went a bit faster than expected today, but this is not beyond her with hard work and the home crowd energy.
'In terms of potential, based on today's swim, she has thrown her name into the hat of Asian Games medal contenders. She is a very good racer, tactically she carries out our race plan on point, and she has shown she can be up there with the finest.'
Other Singaporeans who featured in the heats in July 28 were Letitia Sim (23rd in the 100m breaststroke), Quah Zheng Wen (29th in the 100m backstroke), Levenia Sim (34th in the 100m backstroke) and Jonathan Tan (40th in the 200m freestyle).
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