Story by Mr Ian Chew/Red Sports. Pictures by Ng Cheng Cong.

RJC swimming

Raising his hands in triumph, Teo Zhen Ren of RI wins his C Division 200m freestyle event in 2min 0.62sec. But can he help his team gain a full day off for his school as celebration? (Photo 1 © Ng Cheng Cong/Red Sports)

Singapore Sports School, Wednesday, July 9, 2008 – The gryphon has indeed landed.

Traditional swimming powerhouse Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) had no answer this time to the prowess of Raffles Institution’s swimmers as they surrendered both the B and C Division boys swimming titles for the first time in living memory. Raffles Girls’ School clinched both the B and C Division girls titles while Raffles Junior College captured both A Division boys and girls titles for good measure.

Raffles Institution’s 16-year-old Rainer Ng was naturally ecstatic about his team’s unprecedented win.

“I’m really happy that we can win both B and C titles for the first time,” he said immediately after his record breaking swim in the 100m backstroke final. His time of 59.37 seconds not only rewrote his own mark set during the heats, it was also a full second faster than ACS(I) Zach Ong’s win in the A Division boys final.

On his own performance, the quadruple gold medallist in this year’s national inter-school swimming meet had high standards for himself.

“I definitely look forward to representing Singapore in the future, but I must be able to maintain my current standards,” he explained. He struck gold in the 50m and 100m backstroke events and was part of the winning teams in his school’s 4x50m medley and freestyle relays.

Teacher-in-charge Azmi Rizman of RI attributed his team’s showing to a high quality batch of swimmers.

“All our swimmers, including the secondary ones, showed a lot of heart in competing for the school. Although our team had the potential to win the title last year, it was this year that we performed up to our expectations,” he elaborated.

Raffles Institution will do well not to ignore the quality of ACS(I) though.

Lionel Khoo Chien Yin of ACS(I), despite his tender age of 13 years, showed what an exciting prospect he would be in the future by clinching both the 50m and 100m breaststroke golds. The 100m breaststroke gold was garnered in a meet record timing of 1 minute 08.40 seconds.

“We can reclaim the title if we fight hard enough,” added Lionel, who also won golds in the 4x50m medley and freestyle relay events.

His compatriot Ho Wei Ming had earlier smashed his own C division 100m freestyle meet record he established the previous year with an impressive timing of 55.23 seconds. To give you an idea of how quick this time was, it equaled the winning time of the A division boys 100m freestyle event. This was achieved despite him “not training since the Centre of Excellence was disbanded a few months ago.”

For the moment though, RI can savour a well-deserved victory.

“I can now go back and have a good sleep!” exclaimed Mr Azmi.

ri swimming

Joshua Ling of RI was second in the C Division butterfly race with a time of 28.30sec. (Photo 2 © Ng Cheng Cong/Red Sports)

raffles swimming

Everyone saw green at the swimming championships – Raffles green, that is. (Photo 3 © Ng Cheng Cong/Red Sports)

rgs swimming

Cheryl Lim of RGS on her way to the C Division breaststroke gold in 2min 44.52sec. (Photo 4 © Ng Cheng Cong/Red Sports)

ri swimming

Daniel Tay of RI won the B Division butterfly race in 2min 14.37sec. (Photo 5 © Ng Cheng Cong/Red Sports)

rgs swimming

Start of the 4x50m B Division girls relay. RGS won in 2min 4.69sec. (Photo 6 © Ng Cheng Cong/Red Sports)

acsi swimming

A smiling ACS(I) swimmer Ho Wei Ming with the C boys 100m freestyle record win with Teo Zhen Ren of RI (left) who came in second. Despite his achievements, he was unable to prevent RI from sweeping both B and C division boys titles. (Photo 7 © Ian Chew/Red Sports)

More pictures in the gallery.