On the last day of the Melbourne 2019 World Para Swimming World Series, Team Singapore broke through days of challenging competition to claim a medal for the Republic, with Yip Pin Xiu’s score of 792 points in the 50m Backstroke Multi-class event.
Four Team Singapore swimmers – Yip Pin Xiu, Theresa Goh, Toh Wei Soong and Sophie Soon – kicked off their 2019 season with the competition, held in Melbourne, Australia, from 15 to 17 February 2019.
The 2019 World Para Swimming World Series is the largest to date, with Australia and Singapore added to this year’s calendar to give elite swimmers high level exposure across four continents. The Series uses a multi-class point system for results. Swimmers of different classes (or classification) swim the same event, and their timings are compared to their class’ world record for points. The higher the points, the closer a swimmer’s timing is to the world record.
Yesterday, Yip came in 4th in the 100m Backstroke event, after Australia’s Ellie Cole and Katja Dedekind as well as France’s Anaelle Roulet. She recovered her spirit today at her pet event – the 50m Back – and came in second after New Zealand’s Tupou Neiufi.
“As this is the first competition of the season, I think it is a good baseline to work on. I am satisfied with my timing for this afternoon but am excited about going back to work on some aspects to improve it. I am looking forward to the Singapore leg in May,” said Yip, on her medal win.
Fellow Team Singapore fought hard as well, with Theresa Goh finishing 4th place in the 50m Breaststroke event, 58 points behind third place and Sophie Soon 6th in the same event. Toh Wei Soong missed a bronze in 50m Free by 24 points, but finished the competition on a high with personal bests in both 50m Back and 200m Free.
The team returns tomorrow to Singapore at 10.15pm, via Qantas flight 37.
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