Asiad debutant Tedd Chan sets S’pore 50m backstroke mark, reaches final in day of records

TOKYO – For a brief moment after the men’s 50m backstroke morning heats at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre on Sept 21, Singapore’s Tedd Chan gave an impression of The Ting Tings’ song That’s Not My Name.

The teenager was not even born when the sleeper hit topped the charts in 2009, but he was on song on Sept 21, when he clocked a national record of 24.97sec to qualify for a final on his Asian Games debut.

The 16-year-old said: “I saw the time, I saw 24 (seconds), I was like, that’s not my name, no way that’s my name.

“Then I looked again, and I was like, yeah, it is my name.”

His joy and disbelief were understandable as no Singaporean had gone under 25 seconds in this event.

Before this race, Tedd’s previous best was 25.52 achieved at the 2026 National School Games.

The previous longstanding national mark of 25.13 was set by Quah Zheng Wen at the FINA World Cup in Moscow in 2015.

Swimming in the last of three heats, Tedd was pushed by China’s Xu Jiayu (24.64), who had already won the 100m backstroke in a Games record 51.98sec on Sept 20, and South Korea’s Yoon Ji-hwan (24.74).

He placed fourth overall in the heats, with another Chinese, Wang Zicheng, topping Heat 2 in 24.80. Singapore’s other representative Julian Lee (26.51) was seventh in Heat 1 and finished 18th out of 29 swimmers overall.

In the evening final, Tedd finished eighth in 25.37, while Xu won gold in 24.04 for another Games record as compatriot Wang (24.49) and South Korea’s Yoon (24.54) rounded up the podium.

The Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) student said of his final: “The race plan was there; everything was actually executed properly. The timing just fell short a bit, but I just want to have fun, which I did. It was an awesome experience and I’m pretty happy with the result.

“It’s been a hard few months balancing student life and training, and I just came back from the Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Canada in August. I cope by doing one thing at a time and not rushing anything.

“I have been working on my sprint techniques and it’s been about a year hovering around the 25sec mark, so the national record is actually a big PB (personal best) and I’m really proud of myself.”

The teen started swimming when he was four, began competing at seven, and showed his sprint potential when he won the boys’ 50m backstroke gold (25.79sec) and 50m freestyle silver (23.39sec) at the 2025 Asian Youth Games in Bahrain.

He also commands attention for his full name, Tedd Windsor Chan III, which he explained is a tradition passed down from his late grandfather to his father Junior and then him as the second sons.

He added: “My grandfather passed away last year and I remember trying to qualify for the SEA Games, and now doing this, for him.”

Elsewhere, the continent’s top youngsters continued to impress on Day 2 of the swim meet as they set several records in the same fast pool that also saw six world records fall at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

China’s 13-year-old prodigy Yu Zidi stunningly reclaimed her women’s 200m individual medley Asian record when she won the final in 2min 6.10sec, more than half a second faster than the previous mark of 2:06.82 owned by teammate Yu Yuting, who was second in 2:07.99, followed by Japan’s Mio Narita (2:10.40).

Remarkably, Zidi is just 0.40sec away from Canadian Summer McIntosh’s world record.

Explaining how she chased down her 21-year-old senior, she said: “It was already the last 50m. I held nothing back, gave it my all, thought of nothing, closed my eyes and went full steam ahead.

“I believed I could overtake her but the Asian record comes as a surprise as I didn’t know how fast I could be.”

When asked what her next target was, she replied to chuckles from the Chinese media: “I want to better myself and not be proud. Is that okay?”

Zhang Zhanshuo, 19, then anchored China’s men’s 4x200m freestyle team, also comprising Xu Haibo, Fei Liwei and Pan Zhanle, and made up a deficit of almost two seconds to end Japan’s 12-year domination in this event at the Asian Games with an Asian record of 7:00.17.

The hosts (7:01.05) and South Korea (7:06.76) clinched silver and bronze respectively, while Singapore (7:24.22) were eighth.

Japan’s own wonderkid, 17-year-old Shin Ohashi, made his mark in the men’s 100m breaststroke final when he touched the wall in 58.64 alongside China’s Dong Zhihao for a shared gold, while dethroned defending champion Qin Haiyang (59.01) of China was left with bronze.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s 1.98m “human torpedo”, Kim Young-beom, fulfilled his vow of being “remembered as a legendary athlete” when he became Asia’s fastest swimmer, winning the men’s 50m freestyle final in a Games-record 21.66sec that is faster than the 21.72 mark set by compatriot Ji Yu-chan at the last edition.

Hong Kong’s Ian Ho (21.76sec) and Ji (21.94) took silver and bronze respectively, while Singaporean duo Mikkel Lee (22.06) and Jonathan Tan (22.46) were fifth and 10th respectively.

China’s Wan Letian, 22, improved from silver to gold as she won the women’s 50m backstroke in 27.47sec, switching positions with teammate and defending champion Wang Xue’er (27.66) as South Korean Kim Seung-won (27.72) took bronze.

But there was still room for the older swimmers to make an impact.

Siobhan Haughey, the first Hong Kong swimmer to win an Olympic medal and also Asian Games gold, retained her women’s 200m freestyle gold in 1:54.96, ahead of China’s Li Jiaping (1:56.58) and Liu Yaxin (1:57.53).

Singapore’s Victoria Lim (2:04.43) was 10th after setting a personal best of 2:03.72 in the heats.

Haughey, who claimed the women’s 100m and 200m freestyle double at the last edition, as well as a pair of silvers at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and bronzes at Paris 2024 in the same events, said: “This means a lot.

“Even though it has only been three years since the last Asian Games, a lot has happened and the swimming world has changed so much.

“There are so many rising swimmers coming up so you never know what’s going to happen and who’s going to pop up. The fact that I can still be here at the age of 28, turning 29 next month, I’m very proud of myself.”