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Straits Times
14-07-2025
- Sport
- Straits Times
After Olympic heartbreak, Singaporean swimmer Chantal Liew turns pain into inspiration
If you want a tale of heartbreak, don't go fumbling in the romance section of a bookshop. Just ask any athlete and they'll tell you. About chances missed, bad breaks, last-minute goals. About emptiness, tears, splintered dreams. About a pain which they can precisely measure for you. In open water swimmer Chantal Liew's case, it's 1.7 seconds. Ask and she'll autopsy her heartbreak for you, just take you back to late 2023 when her form was strong and then sickness hit in Portugal. 'Insane gastro' followed, nausea, inability to eat, waking up weeks later in 2024 for the Olympic qualifier in Doha with a sore throat, mentally accepting her Games dream was done. Then the race began and it 'was the best I've ever swum internationally at the start of the race'. Miracle? Nope. The past, all the diarrhoea she'd had, how sick she'd been, returned to ruin her present. Her strength faded, her charge wilted. She and the Chinese swimmer Xin Xin were fighting for an Olympic place and as the finish line beckoned they both sprinted and after 10km and over two hours the clock told her this story. Xin 2:04:21.10. Liew 2:04:22.80. Just half a stroke short of Paris 2024. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Singapore to train more aviation and maritime officials from around the world Business Singapore's economy sees surprise expansion in Q2 despite US tariff uncertainty: Advance estimate Singapore Same person, but different S'porean Chinese names? How have such naming practices evolved? 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There's dirty water being drunk in choppy seas and a heart rate that has to be controlled as the heat rises, fatigue arrives and 'everyone's jumping on top of you'. There's mid-race 'carbo drinks', handed to them via a modified fishing rod, occasionally with Panadol inside because everything's hurting. She swims with one arm and holds the drink with another, never stopping for anything, whether it's seaweed brushing against her in Budapest like ghostly tendrils or stinging jellyfish in Australia. On decent days, at the last kilometre, there's 'delirium'. On tough days, 'the whole body just shuts down, everything is numb'. Anything can happen. Once, she says, 'one of the girls swam so far off course she swam into the shipping lane'. And so yes, 'it's so hard' this pursuit, which is why she wonders every day, and so sometimes do her friends, 'why do we have to choose the least rewarding sport?' There are few fans on the oceans and fewer headlines. 'You get less attention, you get less funding'. But like judokas or fencers they're infected by a love of a game which is so personal and deep it's impossible to explain, love for a challenge, love for discovering who they are under pressure, love for the wonderful expanse of water in which they are transformed. 'We're all just a little bit unhinged,' laughs Liew, 'and at the end of the day we love the pain. It feels so satisfying and it feels so rewarding in such a specific way that nothing else comes close to that feeling.' She remembers training with Chelsea Gubecka in 2023 and doing seven race simulations but with a painful twist. Their race distance was 10km but they did 12km sessions. They were 'the hardest things ever' but when it was done 'we would just be so euphoric'. Open water, an art both strategic and severe, involves skills 'you can only pick up from racing'. There are 'decisions you need to know how to make under pressure... like whether or not you want to get on this person's feet or the other person's feet? (Like drafting in cycling). Which line do you want to take? Where do you want to position yourself in the pack? How do you want to position yourself going into the turn?' Her tone is rich with enthusiasm and it's a triumphant reversal from 2024 when disappointment encased her. 'It was really hard for me to get back into the water... Even when I was in the pool I didn't feel like swimming. I hated it. The only thing that kept replaying in my head was that 1.7 seconds.' But this is the appeal of athletes, the way they acknowledge defeat, conquer distress, grow new skins and turn hurt into inspiration. And so now when she's tired at the end of a practice session, her coach Eugene Chia will use that 1.7 seconds as fuel. 'He's like '1.7 seconds, go, get it, 1.7 seconds, don't give up'. I think that 1.7 seconds, it's so painful, but it's reached a point where it kind of motivates me. It lights that fire where I don't want a repeat of that ever again.' And so as Liew, and her open-water gang, ready for races which are 3km, 5km, 10km, one thought persists. We know precisely the distances they will swim, but never how immeasurably far they have come.
New Straits Times
13-06-2025
- New Straits Times
Family of Chinese tourists killed by uprooted tree files suit, seeks apology and RM1.7mil compensation
GEORGE TOWN: The family of two Chinese tourists who died when an uprooted tree crashed onto their car here last September has filed a civil suit against six parties, seeking an apology and RM1.7 million in compensation. Liu Zhu, 69, and Liu Xin Xin, 36, were killed when the tree, located inside a historical building, came crashing down on their vehicle on Sept 18 last year. The suit was filed by their respective spouses — Yang Xue Li, the wife of Liu and mother of Xin Xin, and Wang Geng Feng, Xin Xin's husband. Their lawyer, Ng Kian Nam, filed the suit via e-filing at the Penang High Court earlier today. The six named parties are: Pinang Peranakan Mansion Sdn Bhd, the operator of the museum where the incident occurred; SSM Capital Sdn Bhd, the museum's landowner; Sri Kumaran's Textile Sdn Bhd, the neighbouring property owner; Pony Holiday Sdn Bhd, the sub-contracted tour company; Har Kwai Leng, the driver of the deceased; and The Penang Island City Council (MBPP). It was reported that the victims' bodies were trapped inside the vehicle after the tree was uprooted by a storm and fell on it. The fallen tree had also damaged part of the building, where the concrete debris also landed on the three vehicles. Meanwhile, another victim, identified as Har, 52, sustained injuries.
Business Times
29-04-2025
- Business
- Business Times
Evergrande chair refuses to disclose assets, liquidators say
[HONG KONG] China Evergrande Group chairman Hui Ka Yan plans to refuse disclosing details of his assets, its liquidators said, likely complicating efforts to wind up the defaulted builder to pay back creditors. Hui expressed his intention in an Apr 23 response to the court, a lawyer representing the liquidators said in a Tuesday (Apr 29) hearing at the Hong Kong High Court. Hui's lawyer, who was at the hearing, did not push back on the liquidator's statement. While the liquidators argued for the earliest date possible for the hearing to resume, Hui's lawyer asked the court for more time given that the case is 'complex' and 'sensitive'. The judge said the hearing on Hui's case will not be held before Jun 30. Tuesday's hearing is part of a legal battle waged by the liquidators to outline and potentially claw back scraps from one of the world's biggest corporate implosions. Clarity on Evergrande's assets tied to Hui is crucial for liquidation as the filings show he controls nearly 60 per cent of the total stake. Hui's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An emblem of China's years-long property crisis, Evergrande defaulted in 2021, resulting in a creditor petition to liquidate the company. When the court sided with creditors in early 2024, it appointed Edward Middleton and Tiffany Wong of Alvarez & Marsal as the liquidators who will also be in charge of running its operations. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Tuesday, 12 pm Property Insights Get an exclusive analysis of real estate and property news in Singapore and beyond. Sign Up Sign Up Evergrande and the liquidators have since taken steps to recoup some of what creditors are owed, including filing lawsuits against Hui, his wife Ding Yumei, former chief executive officer Xia Haijun, former chief financial officer Pan Darong, and three other entities including Xin Xin (BVI). The lawsuits seek to recover US$6 billion in dividends and remuneration paid by the company on the basis that financial statements were allegedly misstated for several years going back to 2017, according to an exchange filing. Hui controls his stake largely through Xin Xin, a British Virgin Islands-based corporate entity, according to the company's latest annual report filed to the Hong Kong stock exchange. In 2023, Chinese authorities notified Evergrande that Hui has been subject to 'mandatory measures' due to 'suspicion of illegal crimes'. BLOOMBERG
