Yeo took part in the 2008 Pacific School Games in Canberra, Australia where she won five medals,[5][6][7] including gold in the 50-metre backstroke[8] and in the 4 × 50-metre freestyle relay.[9]
In the 51st National Schools Swimming Championships, 2010, Yeo lowered the under-14's 100-metre breaststroke national record a further three times.[10][11][12]
Yeo won another four medals at the 52nd National Schools Swimming Championships in 2011. Taking out the 50 and 100-metre breaststroke events in new meet record times,[13][14] Yeo also lowered her personal best in the 100-metre event twice.[15][16]
Yeo continued her record-breaking success at the 2011 ASEAN School Games in Singapore. Bagging two golds, a silver and a bronze medal,[17][18][19][20] Yeo set two new national under-17's relay records.[21][22]
Yeo started 2012 with a solid performance at the 53rd National Schools Swimming Championships, by winning three gold medals.[23][24][25]
Another successful ASEAN School Games meet in Surabaya, Indonesia followed with Yeo picking six medals including two gold and another national under-17's record in the 4 × 100-metre freestyle relay.[21][26]
Yeo began the year by defending her title in the 100-metre breaststroke at the 54th National Schools Swimming Championships. Claiming victory with a time of 1:11.90, this broke her own meet record and came within 0.03 seconds of her personal best time. She also swam her quickest-ever first 50-metre split in 33.55 seconds.[27][28] In the 200-metre breaststroke, Yeo won silver in a new national under-17's record time of 2:34.07,[29] shaving 0.22 seconds off Nicolette Teo's 11-year-old mark.[30]
Yeo commenced 2014 by competing in her fifth National Schools Swimming Championships. Swimming in the 16–19 age group, the 17-year-old won gold in the 200-metre breaststroke in 2:34.17. Finishing 14 seconds ahead of Singapore Sports School's Amanda Tam, Yeo smashed Cheryl Lim's 2011 meet record by three seconds.[31][32] In the heats of the 100-metre breaststroke, Yeo was the fastest qualifier in a meet record time of 1:12.58, eclipsing Cheryl Lim's 1:14.06 set in 2011.[33] In the final, Yeo clocked a time of 1:11.65 but was disqualified for executing alternating kicks. The time would have been a new meet record and gold medal. Devastated by the result, she told The Straits Times that it was the third time this year that she been disqualified for her kicks.[34] However, she later teamed up with Jing Wen Shan, Madeline Quek and Song Ai Vee to win gold in the 4 × 50-metre medley relay with 2:02.88, shaving 0.03 seconds off Raffles's 2012 meet record[35][36] and the same quartet won gold in the 4 × 50-metre freestyle relay in 1:50.44, narrowly missing the meet record of 1:49.24.[36][37]
Age-Group Competition
Yeo first competed for Singapore at the age of 11 at the 32nd Southeast Asian Age Group Swimming Championships in Bangkok, Thailand in June 2008.[38]
In April 2009, now aged 12, Yeo, representing the Ace Swim Club at the 7th ASEAN Inter-Club Age Group Swimming Championships in Singapore, won eight medals – six gold and two silver – and set two meet records.[39] Following a successful meet at the 33rd Southeast Asian Age Group Swimming Championships in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where she picked up five medals,.[40]
This was followed by another highly successful meet at the 34th Southeast Asian Age Group Swimming Championships in Manila, Philippines, where she won nine medals from nine events and broke a further two meet records.[41][42][43]
She then lowered her personal best time in the 50-metre breaststroke to 33.35 at the 35th Southeast Asian Age Group Swimming Championships in Da Nang, Vietnam, where she won four medals.[44][45]
Yeo completed in her first Hong Kong International Open in September 2009, picking up a silver in the 200-metre breaststroke in a new personal best time[57][58] and with Amanda Lim, Mylene Ong and Koh Ting Ting also won silver in the 4 × 100-metre freestyle relay.[59]
In November, at the final leg of the 2009 FINA Swimming World Cup in Singapore, Yeo reached the final of the three breaststroke events[60][61][62] then closed out the year by finishing fourth in the 200-metre breaststroke at the 2009 Southeast Asian Games in Vientiane, Laos in a new national under-14's record time of 2:36.04,[4][63] improving on Nicolette Teo's previous mark of 2:36.27 set at the 1999 Southeast Asian Games.[64] This feat added to the national under-14's 100-metre breaststroke record she broke at the 2009 National Schools Swimming Championships six months earlier. Stopping the clock at 1:14.05, this shaved 0.02 seconds off Joscelin Yeo's time set at the Asia Pacific Swimming Meet in September 1991.[65][66]
Three months later, she won gold in the 4 × 100-metre medley relay with Lynette Ng, Tao Li and Mylene Ong at the 2010 Hong Kong International Open, where she also won bronze in the 100-metre breaststroke. Qualifying third fastest in the heats in 1:13.13,[67] she broke her own national under-14's record by 0.07 seconds. In the final, she lowered it again to 1:12.77,[54][68] the sixth time she had done so in 14 months.[65]
Yeo began 2011 by equalling her national under-14's record in the 200-metre breaststroke at the 2011 Victorian Open Championships in Melbourne.[73]
In June 2011, Yeo won her first national title in the 50-metre breaststroke at the Singapore Championships, finishing 0.20 seconds shy of Nicolette Teo's 2006 meet record of 33.49.[74]
In November, Yeo set a new national short course record of 32.90 in the 50-metre breaststroke at the Singaporean leg of the 2011 FINA Swimming World Cup[75][76] and finished the season with two medals at the 2011 Southeast Asian Games in Palembang, Indonesia. She won bronze in the 200-metre breaststroke[77][78] and with Amanda Lim, Tao Li and Shana Lim won gold in the 4 × 100-metre medley relay.[78][79] She also achieved a new personal best time of 1:12.13 in the final of 100-metre breaststroke, where she finished in 4th place.[78][80]
She then backed this up with a three-medal haul at the inaugural Southeast Asian Swimming Championships in Singapore. With Shana Lim, Tao Li and Mylene Ong, Yeo set the first championship record in the 4 × 100-metre medley relay with a time of 4:17.99[81][82] and individually won bronze in the 50-metre breaststroke,[83] bronze in the 200-metre individual medley[84]
and finished 4th in the 200-metre breaststroke in 2:34.93, smashing her personal best by over a second.[85][86]
At the National Championships in August, Yeo claimed the national title in the 100-metre breaststroke in a new personal best time of 1:11.87, breaking the 1:12.00 barrier for the first time. This time also broke Joscelin Yeo's seven-year-old meet record of 1:12.36, and was achieved a mere 30 minutes after her silver medal in the 400-metre individual medley.[87] The following week at the SSA Grand Prix short course event, Yeo set a further two national open records. In the 200-metre breaststroke, she slashed four seconds from her 2010 record to lower it to 2:30.14[70][88] and in the 100-metre breaststroke Yeo swam 1:10.04 to break Cheryl Lim's 2009 mark of 1:10.68.[89]
In November, Yeo lowered her own national mark in the 50-metre breaststroke to 32.75 at the Tokyo leg of the 2012 FINA Swimming World Cup.[76][90] Seven days later at the eighth and final leg in Singapore, Yeo set two more national records.[91] In the 200-metre breaststroke, the time was lowered to 2:29.74[92] and in the 50-metre breaststroke she stopped the clock at 32.72,[93] wiping 0.03 seconds from her record set in Tokyo.[76] After finishing equal third in the 50-metre breaststroke in a new personal best time of 33.09 at the Dubai Asian Swimming Championships,[45][94] Yeo set a further two national records at the 2012 FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) in Istanbul. Although she did not advance to the semi-finals, Yeo clocked 1:09.28 in the 100-metre breaststroke to wipe 0.76 seconds from her previous mark[95] and clocked 32.63 in the 50-metre breaststroke,[96] improving on her previous record by 0.09 seconds.[76]
June 2013 saw Yeo clinch four titles at the 2013 Singapore Championships, her best results at the Nationals to date.[97] In the heats of 100-metre breaststroke, Yeo set a new personal best time of 1:11.57, lowering it by 0.33 seconds.[98] In the final, Yeo defended her title in a new national under-17's record time of 1:10.49,[99] erasing the mark of 1:11.37 set 18 years prior by Joscelin Yeo at the 1995 Southeast Asian Games.[100][101] The time slashed a further 1.08 seconds from her personal best and came within 0.34 seconds of Nicolette Teo's national open record of 1:10.15.[100] In the 200-metre breaststroke, Yeo won gold in a 2:32.34,[102] lowering her own national under-17's record and set a new meet record.[30][100] She completed the set by taking out the 50-metre breaststroke in 33.01, in another new meet record[103] and personal best time.[104] Her final gold medal was won in the 200-metre individual medley in a new personal best and meet record time of 2:19.11.[105][106] Yeo also won silver in the 400-metre individual medley.[107]
"But I'm really grateful to be back and competing at my third SEA Games. A lot of credit has to go to my family and coach for these two medals. All things considered, I couldn't have asked for a better end to my campaign."
Yeo closed out the year by winning two medals at her third Southeast Asian Games in Naypyidaw, Burma. In the 4 × 100-metre medley relay, Yeo with Tao Li, Amanda Lim and Quah Ting Wen won gold in 4:13.02, extending Singapore's winning streak in the event to six.[111][112] In her individual events, Yeo won bronze in the 200-metre breaststroke in 2:34.27,[112][113] 4th in the 100-metre breaststroke in 1:12.79[114] and 6th in the 200-metre individual medley in 2:22.51.[115] Yeo was delighted with her results, considering the injury sustained to her leg only eight weeks prior. She said "I was devastated because when I got injured, we were on the verge of giving up these SEA Games for the good of my long-term competitive future. We had just two weeks of training and it took a toll on me not just physically but also mentally, because there was also the fear of a recurrence of the injury." Her coach, David Lim revealed that Yeo's training regime was increased to three times a day in the last week to make up for lost time in terms of fitness.[110]
At the 2014 Southeast Asian Swimming Championships in Singapore, Yeo won four medals including gold in the 100-metre breaststroke in 1:12.26.[116] Though she finished 0.3 seconds ahead of the field, she was still disappointed, stating that "there are many areas that I have to work on, my time wasn't my personal best and I was definitely looking for a better time".[117] She also won silver in the 50-metre breaststroke in 33.39,[118][119] silver in the 200-metre breaststroke in 2:35.95[120] and in the 4 × 100-metre medley relay Yeo with Marina Chan, Amanda Lim and Tan Jing-E won silver in 4:15.54. Finishing just
0.27 seconds behind Thailand, both teams swam under the meet record of 4:17.99.[121][122] In her final event of the meet, Yeo finished 6th in the 200-metre individual medley in 2:22.16.[123]