Amanda Lim crowns a decade of dominance in blue-riband race
Amanda Lim marked a decade of dominance in swimming's blue-riband race, winning the 50m freestyle for the sixth consecutive SEA Games.
The 26-year-old started her winning streak as a teenager at the 2009 Games in Vientiane and extended it at New Clark City Aquatics Center yesterday.
Singapore's only other individual gold medallist swimmer from Laos still competing is Quah Ting Wen - the national record holder in the 50m fly, having clocked 24.92sec in August.
But neither she, nor anyone else in the field could stop Lim yesterday, or indeed, for the past decade.
Lim set a new personal best for the first time in around a decade, touching the wall in 25.06, ahead of Thailand's Jenjira Srisa-Ard (25.32) and Jasmine Alkhaldi (25.48) of the Philippines.
Quah was fourth in 25.56.
Said Lim: "My previous best was 25.3 and I haven't done a PB in like 10 years.
"I'm really happy with 25.06. To do it again, to bring it back to Singapore for the sixth consecutive time, I'm speechless...
"The SEA Games is always something pretty special to me. Made my first team when I was 14 years old, and here I am standing at 26 and still going for it.
"I guess it's just the passion for racing... Family's in the stands, coming all the way from Singapore and I have family and relatives from back home watching on TV."
Singapore's swimmers won three other golds yesterday - Lionel Khoo in the 50m breaststroke, Darren Chua in the 100m freestyle and the 4x100m relay team of Quah, her sister Jing Wen, Christie Chue and Elena Pedersen.
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