S’pore’s Tedd Chan sets 50m backstroke national record, qualifies for final in Asian Games debut

TOKYO – For a brief moment after the men’s 50m backstroke heats 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 time 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 was 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 also set before he was born, by Quah Zheng Wen at the 2015 FINA World Cup in Moscow.

Swimming in the last of three heats at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, Chan was pushed by China’s Xu Jiayu (24.64), who had already won the 100m backstroke in a Games record 51.98 on Sept 20, and South Korea’s Yoon Jih-wan (24.74).

The Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) student 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.

Tedd said: “I went in the water and the underwater kicks didn’t feel as proper as I wanted them to be, but I felt the water was moving and it felt so great during the swim.

“The goal was making the final. After looking at the really fast times in the first day, it felt a bit hard, so I just wanted to give my best effort and thankfully I made the final.

“It’s been a hard few months as I just came back from the Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Canada in August. I have been working on my sprint techniques and it’s been about a year hovering around the 25sec mark, so this is actually a big PB (personal best) and I’m really proud of myself.”

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

On Sept 21, he will be chasing history, as no Singaporean has won an Asiad 50m backstroke medal since the event was introduced in the 2006 edition.

When asked if he could outdo himself to make the podium in the evening finals, Tedd said: “My senior Mikkel (Lee) told me to just have fun and I’m just going to do that tonight.”

Meanwhile, a day after making the men’s 100m freestyle final, Lee (22.30) and teammate Jonathan Tan (22.43) reached the men’s 50m freestyle final after finishing eighth and 10th overall respectively in the heats.

Compatriot Victoria Lim (2min 3.72sec) also made it to the women’s 200m freestyle final after coming in ninth overall in the heats, while Christian Schulz (14th) missed out after finishing 14th out of 21 athletes.

Singapore’s Glen Lim, Brandon Yap, Russel Pang and Ardi Zulhilmi Azman will also feature in the finals after placing sixth overall in the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay heats in 7:22.73.

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David Lee is senior sports correspondent at The Straits Times, focusing on aquatics, badminton, basketball, cue sports, football and table tennis.