Taiwanese swimmer Huang Mei-chien has qualified for this month’s Tokyo Olympic Games, the Chinese Taipei Swimming Association (CTSA) said yesterday.
Swimming governing body FINA, which administers the water sports at the Games, yesterday confirmed via e-mail that Huang had been accepted to compete in the women’s 50m freestyle at the Tokyo Games, which are scheduled to start on July 23, the CTSA said.
Huang is the national record holder in the women’s 50m freestyle, having recorded a time of 25.59 seconds in the first 50m of her leg of the 4x200m freestyle relay at the National Intercollegiate Athletic Games in May, breaking her own record of 25.78 seconds.
However, the record fell short of the Olympics selection time by 0.08 seconds, but Huang earned a reserved berth in the Games because Taiwan did not have a competitor in that event and she holds the national record, the CTSA said.
Huang, who will be competing at an Olympics for the first time, said she would have had a chance to improve her time at a national swimming event last month, but it was canceled due to the domestic COVID-19 outbreak.
Since then she had been nervous about her chances of gaining the reserved slot for the Tokyo Olympics, Huang said.
Now that her place has been confirmed, Huang can concentrate on her preparations for the Games, at which she will be aiming to set a new national record in the women’s 50m freestyle.
Huang is the third Taiwanese swimmer to secure a place at the Olympic Games after Eddie Wang and Wang Hsing-hao, who will compete in the men’s events.
CTSA president Tseng Cheng-tsung said by telephone that he was relieved to receive the FINA confirmation yesterday, three weeks after the CTSA submitted its list of recommended swimmers for reserved places at the Olympics.
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