Tao Li's back in the swim

After a slow start to the year, Tao Li looks to have finally found her stride.

The national swimmer picked up her fourth medal of the Fina World Cup last Friday after finishing second in the women's 50 metres butterfly event in Dubai.

Clocking 25.55sec behind Denmark's Jeanette Ottesen (25.03) at the short-course meet, Tao Li certainly looks to be picking up steam for December's South-east Asia (SEA) Games in Napyidaw, Myanmar.

While she is not yet at her peak, Singapore Swimming Assocation (SSA) president Jeffrey Leow cannot wait to see Tao Li in action in front of a home crowd when the short-course competition comes to the Singapore Sports School on Nov 5 and 6.

"She is obviously going to peak for the SEA Games - that is the plan for this cycle of training for her," said Leow.

"But I'm very keen to see what she's going to do in the World Cup in Singapore, partly because of the home crowd and I think there will be a lot of people cheering for her in the pool.

"For me, that's the opportunity to see if she's going to do well or not."

Tao Li took the 100m bronze last Thursday to add to her silver (100m) and bronze (50m) haul from the Moscow leg earlier this month.

While she has had a good World Cup that has seen her break the national 50m fly short-course record, clocking 25.43 in August during the Eindhoven leg, Leow believes the swim queen can only get better.

He said: "She's rounding up into shape and I think she's been training since she came back from the World Championships (in Barcelona), where she did pretty well.

"She's done some decent times in the Middle East cluster, but I think she'll do better when she comes to Singapore.

"She can definitely get faster because this is mid-season form for her and she hasn't peaked yet."

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