TOKYO, July 26 — National swimmer Phee Jinq En had only one goal in the Tokyo Olympics, rewriting her own national record in the women's 100 metre (m) breaststroke event.
And she managed to keep her promise in stylish fashion in the Heat Two race held at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, yesterday.
The 23-year-old Jinq En clocked 1:08.40 seconds (s) to erase her own previous mark of 1:08.50s, which she did en route to bagging the gold medal at the 2019 SEA Games in Manila.
"I am satisfied and happy to break the national record and achieving my personal best," she said in an audio recording shared with the media today.
Not only that, Jinq En came out second best in the heat, just inches behind Slovakia’s Andrea Podmanikova who did 1:08.36s.
Tilali Scanlan of American Samoa (1:10.01s) finished the race in third place.
However, Jinq En's time was still not fast enough to be placed among the top 16 swimmers to advance to the semi-finals, to be held today.
Jinq En ended up 29th out of 43 competitors in the overall ranking.
Meanwhile, it is not the end of the road for Jinq En as she still has one final shot at going further in the Tokyo Olympics.
She is set to feature in the women’s 200m breaststroke event on Wednesday (July 28).
— Bernama
