Singapore's Tedd Chan smashes longstanding 50m backstroke national record at Asian Games

The Games debutant qualified fourth overall for the final.

Tedd Chan celebrates after setting a national record in the Men's 50m Backstroke heats of the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games 2026 at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre on Sep 21, 2026. (Photo: CNA/Wallace Woon)

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SINGAPORE: Seconds after touching the wall at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre on Monday (Sep 21), there was a huge smile on the face of 17-year-old Asian Games debutant Tedd Chan.

Not only had he massively lowered his personal best of 25.52s, Chan had broke a national record which had stood for over a decade, and qualified for the final of the men's 50m backstroke.

'I've never seen that (time) before," said Chan of his time of 24.97s. "I saw 24s and I was like 'that's not my name, there's no way it's my name'. And then I looked again, and it was my name."

Chan qualified fourth overall for the final behind China's Xu Jiayu, South Korea's Yoon Jihwan and China's Wang Zicheng, and will compete again later on Monday.

Tedd Chan during the Men's 50m Backstroke heats of the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games 2026 at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, Sep 21, 2026. (Photo: CNA/Wallace Woon)

The previous national record stood 25.13s, set by Quah Zheng Wen at the 2015 FINA World Cup in Moscow.

"It's been a hard few months," he said. "Been working on sprint techniques, especially with my coach and performance people. It's been about a year around 25s, so it's a big personal best from 25.5s to 24s. Really proud of myself."

Singapore's swimmers have now set two national records after less than two days of competition. Earlier on Saturday, Gan Ching Hwee took silver in the women's 1500m, rewriting her previous national mark.

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这位首次参加奥运会的选手以总成绩第四名的成绩晋级决赛。

2026年9月21日，在东京水上运动中心举行的2026年爱知-名古屋亚运会男子50米仰泳预赛中，陈伟群打破全国纪录后庆祝。（图片：CNA/Wallace Woon）

这段音频由人工智能工具生成。

新加坡：周一（9 月 21 日），在东京水上运动中心触壁几秒钟后，17 岁的亚运会新秀陈伟群脸上露出了灿烂的笑容。

陈不仅大幅提高了他个人最佳成绩 25.52 秒，还打破了保持了十多年的全国纪录，并晋级男子 50 米仰泳决赛。

“我以前从没见过这个成绩，”陈说起他24.97秒的成绩时说道。“我看到24秒的时候，心想‘那不是我的名字，不可能是我的名字’。然后我又看了一遍，发现那真的是我的名字。”

陈在决赛中排名第四，落后于中国的徐嘉宇、韩国的尹智焕和中国的王自成，他将于周一晚些时候再次参赛。

2026年9月21日，在东京水上运动中心举行的2026年爱知-名古屋亚运会男子50米仰泳预赛中，陈伟群正在比赛。（图片：中央社/伍文华）

此前的全国纪录是 25.13 秒，由 Quah Zheng Wen 在 2015 年莫斯科举行的国际泳联世界杯上创造。

“这几个月很艰难，”他说。“我一直在努力提高短跑技术，特别是和我的教练以及体能训练团队一起训练。过去一年我的成绩都在25秒左右，所以这次从25.5秒提高到24秒，对我来说是一个很大的个人最佳成绩。我真的为自己感到骄傲。”

新加坡游泳队在不到两天的比赛后，已经打破了两项全国纪录。周六早些时候，颜清慧在女子1500米比赛中获得银牌，并刷新了她自己保持的全国纪录。

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