Story by Iman Hashim and Chan Hua Zheng/Red Sports. Photos by Soh Jun Wei and Chua Kai Yun/Red Sports.
OCBC Aquatic Centre, Friday, March 11, 2016 — Ephraim Tan of Aquatic Performance Swim Club (APSC) stole the show among the boys on the first day of the Singapura Finance 47th Singapore National Age Group Swimming Championships.
Ephraim, 12, was the only boy in action who won two events on the night – the boys’ 50 metres freestyle and the 400m individual medley for 12-year-olds.
Ephraim completed the shorter event in 28.33 seconds – more than half a second ahead of his closest competitor, Keiden Sutanto from Indonesia, who clocked 29.06s. Barely 45 minutes later, he showed no signs of fatigue as he blitzed the pool in the 400m IM, finishing in 5 minutes 10.81 seconds – almost a clear eight seconds ahead of his second-placed opponent, Christian Low of Singapore Swimming Club.
Apart from Ephraim, 11-year-old Mateen Shyam, also of APSC, turned heads too as he showed stamina to win one event and finish as second runner-up in two others on the night.
Mateen finished as the third-quickest 11-year-old boy in the 200m breaststroke and 50m freestyle, clocking timings of 3:06.18 and 30.40s respectively. He then emerged as the fastest among his peers in the 400m IM in 5:35.00, considerably helped by the fact that he was swimming two lanes away from Ephraim in the same timed final.
Although there were no records broken among the boys on the first day of competition, the one who came closest was eight-year-old Reagan Cheng in the 50m freestyle. He finished in 35.14 seconds, just 0.02 seconds slower than the meet record set by Gabriel Koo in 2013.
Gabriel, now 11, finished marginally behind in second place in the 400m IM – a mere 0.35 seconds behind Mateen.
The action resumes on March 12, at the OCBC Aquatic Centre. The juniors will compete over the weekend on March 12 and 13 while the senior competitors will race next week, from March 16 to 20.
Boys results – Day 1
Boys 11 year olds 200m breaststroke
1st Jadon Yoong Jia Zhong — 2:59.34
2nd Timothy Ting Jun-Hng — 3:04.65
3rd Mateen Shyam — 3:06.18
Boys 12 year olds 200m breaststroke
1st Terence Ong Yi Hao — 2:47.95
2nd Jeng Ong — 2:48.19
3rd Xia Jiang Tian — 2:52.73
Boys 8 year olds 50m freestyle
1st Reagan Cheng — 35.14
2nd Zavv Lee Xian Le — 35.20
3rd Tiger Christiano Leecov — 36.37
Boys 9 year olds 50m freestyle
1st Nathan Lim — 33.04
2nd Marcus Choo Zhengxiang — 33.36
3rd Matthew Ang Yu Zhe — 33.44
Boys 10 year olds 50m freestyle
1st Ng Yi Wang — 31.06
2nd Marc Lim Qi Xian — 32.28
3rd Micaiah Tan — 32.30
Boys 11 year olds 50m freestyle
1st Connor Schuster — 30.34
2nd Keane Yong — 30.35
3rd Mateen Shyam — 30.40
Boys 12 year olds 50m freestyle
1st Ephraim Tan — 28.33
2nd Keiden Sutanto — 29.06
3rd Kailani Seng Yang — 29.36
Boys 11 year olds 400m individual medley
1st Mateen Shyam — 5:35.00
2nd Gabriel Koo Yingxuan — 5:35.35
3rd Ashvin Raju — 5:47.07
Boys 12 year olds 400m individual medley
1st Ephraim Tan — 5:10.81
2nd Christian Low Tze Hang — 5:18.45
3rd Terence Ong Yi Hao — 5:27.30
More photos next page
Ephraim Tan rocks!!!