National swimmer, Welson Sim booked two slots for the upcoming Rio Olympics after winning both the 200m freestyle as well as the 400m freestyle at the 47th Singpore Finance National Age Group Swimming Championships.
The Sarawak-born swimmer secured his first slot after winning the 400m freestyle event yesterday, finishing with a time of 3 minutes and 50.33 seconds. He then went on to win the 200m freestyle event this morning, clocking in a time of 1 minute and 47.67 seconds, which was also a new national record.
“Very excited to qualify for the Olympics, got a spot for my first Olympics,” said the 19-year-old to The Straits Times reporters.
“I felt very good in the water just now. Before the race, I warmed up and that gave me confidence in qualifying,” he added.
His bumper performance also drew the attention of Prime Minister Mohd Najib Tun Razak, who took to Twitter to publicly congratulate Welson on his feat.
He was quoted saying, “Great to hear that our swimmer, Welson Sim, splashed his way to the 2016 Rio Olympics with an impressive performance at the swimming championships in Singapore. Congrats!,” on his Twitter account.
Grt to hear tht our swimmer WelsonSim splashed his way to #Rio2016 w/ an impressive performance at the swimming chmpshps in S'pore.Congrats!
— Mohd Najib Tun Razak (@NajibRazak) March 18, 2016
Just to top it all off, here is a short video of Welson Sim, embracing his limitation:
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