READY TO GIVE S'PORE 'PLENTY TO CHEER FOR'

S'pore Aquatics eyes 'at least 20 golds' at SEA Games, as veteran Teong seeks to reclaim double

- David Lee Senior Sports Correspondent

Elbow injuries, missed Olympic qualification and being embroiled in a drug consumption case were some of the setbacks that Teong Tzen Wei had to deal with over the years, but with each debacle, the national swimmer has come back stronger.

At the Dec 9-20 SEA Games in Thailand, he aims to repeat the trick and reclaim the men’s 50m freestyle and butterfly titles he lost to teammates Jonathan Tan and Mikkel Lee respectively at the 2023 edition after winning both in 2022.

At the Singapore Aquatics’ (SAQ) SEA Games media day at OCBC Aquatic Centre on Nov 10, the 28-year-old told The Straits Times he has persisted with the sport because “there is still this kid inside me who is still excited and enjoys swimming and competing”.

He added: “I've been through so many things already and I’m old enough to handle wins and losses, but everyone wants to win, so I’ll go there and give it my best shot.”

Teong is in fine form as he reclaimed the short-course men’s 50m butterfly Asian record in 21.93sec at the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup in Toronto in October, and will focus on only the two 50m events at the SEA Games.

Explaining that it would be unfair for him to compete in the relays when he has not trained for the 100m events, he added that he wants to “give back and mentor the next generation of athletes”.

Teong will get the opportunity to do so in Thailand as SAQ is fielding 71 athletes with an average age of 21.8 years — 40 of whom are debutants — across swimming, open water swimming, water polo, artistic swimming and diving.