Story by Mr Ian Chew/Red Sports. Pictures by Ng Cheng Cong.
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.
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)
Everyone saw green at the swimming championships – Raffles green, that is. (Photo 3 © Ng Cheng Cong/Red Sports)
Cheryl Lim of RGS on her way to the C Division breaststroke gold in 2min 44.52sec. (Photo 4 © Ng Cheng Cong/Red Sports)
Daniel Tay of RI won the B Division butterfly race in 2min 14.37sec. (Photo 5 © Ng Cheng Cong/Red Sports)
Start of the 4x50m B Division girls relay. RGS won in 2min 4.69sec. (Photo 6 © Ng Cheng Cong/Red Sports)
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.
The A Div one was a tough fight between ACS(I) and RJC. ACS(I) lost PARTLY because honestly, we do not have as many swimmers as RJC in the finals. I stress the word: PARTLY.
ACS(I) won 10 Golds, compared to RJC’s 4 Golds. But lost by a meagre 21 points (192-171). If we had more swimmers, we would have made it an even closer contest.
That said, there is no fault in RJC’s part for winning the A Div. The fact is that they won and they won it fair and square, no cheating nothing. So I guess RJC should be given due credit for their A Div Overall Win.
“ACS schools are the training grounds in swimming at all levels.
All of our star swimmers are poached.
While many stay on, some have chosen to ‘defect’.”
Please tell Real Madrid to be grateful to the Man Utd, Ajax and brazilian footballing academies and stay off cristiano ronaldo. i must say this was a great argument and real madrid would surely listen to you. ‘Defect’. hahaha. whatever.
RI won fair and square.Doesn’t matter how many ACS swimmers from primary schools we have.Plus the school doesn’t train the swimmers fully.They spend most of their trainings at their own clubs.And it doesn’t matter how many gold medals ACS have.Its the points that count.Many may think swimming is an individual sport.It is only to a small extent.But we train as a team(be it a club team or school team).We compete as a team.You may get on the starting block by yourself but your team will always be supporting you.
ACS also put up a strong fight.They were good competitiors.They may have a chance to win back the titles next year.
Anon, Zhen Ren won gold for that event in the first picture.
I have to agree that there are a number of swimmers in RI who came from ACS Primary. Some of them are my friends. But the point is, if they chose to go to RI, there has to be a reason behind it. ACS(I) just wasn’t as attractive to them as RI was. I’m sure each one has his own reasons. But whatever it is, the fact remains. And I like the words of “admiration”: “This is part of life. We wish them well, and are proud of their achievements. We are happy to have contributed in the nurturing of their success.”
Also, Raffles having less golds doesn’t make them any less the champions. The Raffles Swim TEAM competed to win the TEAM Gold.
…but sad how some people drink water dont remember the source…
think RJC has a couple of good AC swimmers too.
ACSians never fail to deliver n shine wherever they go.
TO GOD BE THE GLORY!
ACS schools are the training grounds in swimming at all levels.
All of our star swimmers are poached.
While many stay on, some have chosen to ‘defect’.
This is part of life. We wish them well, and are proud of their achievements.
We are happy to have contributed in the nurturing of their success.
Illyas is from RI he was in ACS primary when he was in PRIMARY SCHOOL. If you count the golds, ACSI has more golds. RI just has many swimmers qualifying for the finals.
Lol FYI one of the sec 1 swimmers, ( not featured in this article) Syed Illyas, won gold 50m back stroke. He’s from ACS primary. Pretty ironic.
Congrats Raffles Swim Team. ACS swim team, rmb not to work hard, nxt yr let raffles continue 😀 XD
XP i think nxt yr’s acs c div is strong, hopefully not stronger than ri
hahah han you would do well to see the truth and not make baseless assumptions 😉 train harder and come back next year to break the raffles dominance this year then if you are unhappy about it.
juz try to understand Han’s sentiments. I m certain he is not a malcontent. Probably reeling from the shock of the ‘Unprecedented’ loss of ACS.
Thanks for the vocab education Nigel, ACSians fully comprehend the meaning.
Raffles JUST had a taste of the ‘unprecedented sweep’, ACS prowess and dominance in the pool had long turned the unprecedented into precedents for decades. Thats why i suspect the loss is painful and in a way unprecedented for ACS. ( i say this with humility )
However, I m sure ACS gives honor to whom honor is due, and we applaud the achievements of Raffles.
ACSians will turn the ‘defeat’ into motivation and learn.
The resilient will overcome and RETURN.
ACS also has some record-smashing wins—————————————————TO GOD BE THE GLORY, THE BEST IS YET TO BE!
Haha, what’s so biased about “Raffles schools complete unprecedented sweep of 6 swimming division titles" ? I don’t think there’s any bias in that at all.
Unprecedented means “never done before”, which, as far as I’m concerned, is a statement based completely on fact.
Good job to all the Raffles Swimmers!
nicely said, BB
Hey, we didnt lose, we just came in 2nd.
Be positive and come back stronger next year.
Well done to Raffles.
Work harder and believe, ACSians
Btw Marvin, we dont have to surrender meekly, we surrender graciously.
The better wins, the fittest survives.
How about “ACS family surrenders Swimming crown meekly."?
i think the article was more than balanced enough
On what basis is it cocky and biased?
Please justify.
The caption is just cocky and raffles bias. It seems that the print media is adopting that tone too (ref to ST article dated 10 July).
raffles boy who won 2nd in the first picture is Teo Zhen Ren