Story by Iman Hashim and Chan Hua Zheng/Red Sports. Photos by Soh Jun Wei and Chua Kai Yun/Red Sports.
Ephraim Tan receives the Most Valuable Swimmer award after winning a total of 11 gold medals in as many events at the 47th Singapore National Age Group Swimming Championships. (Photo 1 © Soh Jun Wei/Red Sports)
OCBC Aquatic Centre, Sunday, March 13, 2016 — Ephraim Tan, 12, of Aquatic Performance Swim Club (APSC) won the Most Valuable Swimmer award for boys at the Singapura Finance 47th Singapore National Age Group Swimming Championships.
The primary six student from Anglo-Chinese School (Primary) racked up a further five wins on the third day to bring his total tally to a whopping 11 gold medals in every single race that he competed in.
Ephraim began the day by emerging fastest among his peers in the 200 metres butterfly, with a timing of 2 minutes 25.1 seconds. He then showed no signs of slowing down as he clinched two more wins in the 50m backstroke (33.65s) and 200m freestyle (2:16.45) to close out the morning session.
In the afternoon, he then won the 100m backstroke and 100m freestyle with timings of 1:11.55 and 1:03.23 respectively.
On his stellar showing in the championships, Ephraim remarked, “I am pretty happy with my overall performance. I did not really set any expectations for myself from the start. I just stuck to my own race plans, and I’m just happy with how it all turned out.”
When questioned about his future aims, he added, “I want to try to get as close as possible to Zachary Ian Tan, because he holds a lot of records and I just hope I can get close (to his standard) soon.”
Another notable swimmer was Marcus Choo, 9, of Singapore Swimming Club (SSC), who was the only boy to break a meet record on the third day when he swam the 50m breaststroke in 40.70s, erasing Zachary Ian Tan’s old mark of 41.31s set in 2012.
It was Marcus’ second record-breaking performance of the championships after he set the new 200m individual medley mark for 9-year-olds the previous day.
Marcus’ latest feat means a total of three junior boys’ records were broken during these championships. Apart from the two that Marcus broke, 9-year-old Matthew Ang of Ace Swim Club (ASC) also set a new mark in the 100m breaststroke.
Although both Marcus (3 golds, 2 silvers) and Matthew (1 gold, 1 silver, 5 bronzes) had record-breaking performances, the most bemedalled 9-year-old boy turned out to be Nathan Lim of ASC, who racked up four golds, five silvers and one bronze for a total of 10 medals.
Among the 8-year-old boys, that honour belongs to Reagan Cheng (6 golds, 2 silvers), while Marc Lim and Ng Yi Wang were the most impressive 10-year-old swimmers with five golds plus one silver and two golds plus five silvers respectively.
Mateen Shyam, 11, stood out among his peers with four golds, one silver and three bronzes while 11-year-olds Gabriel Koo (2 golds, 4 silvers, 2 bronzes) and Jadon Yoong (3 golds, 1 silver, 2 bronzes) also had commendable performances.
With the competition over for the junior swimmers, it is the turn of the seniors to take to the pool from March 16 to 20 at the OCBC Aquatic Centre.
Boys Results – Day 3 (Morning Session)
Boys 11 Year Olds 200m Butterfly
1st Gabriel Koo Yingxuan — 2:36.70
2nd Jadon Yoong Jia Zhong — 2:45.38
3rd Mateen Shyam — 2:46.11
Boys 12 Year Olds 200m Butterfly
1st Ephraim Tan — 2:25.10
2nd Maximus Liew Zhi Jiee — 2:34.73
3rd Christian Low Tze Hang — 2:39.22
Boys 8 Year Olds 50m Backstroke
1st Reagan Cheng — 41.92
2nd Zavv Lee Xian Le — 42.55
3rd Luke Ang Yukai — 42.73
Boys 9 Year Olds 50m Backstroke
1st Ewan Lee Yi Wei Pedersen — 37.80
2nd Nathan Lim — 39.67
3rd Jonathan Chan Yi Xuan — 40.31
Boys 10 Year Olds 50m Backstroke
1st Marc Lim Qi Xian — 36.47
2nd Ng Yi Wang — 36.79
3rd Lachlan Saputra Goh — 37.49
Boys 11 Year Olds 50m Backstroke
1st Mateen Shyam — 34.78
2nd Russell Loo Zhi Yang — 34.85
3rd Connor Schuster — 34.89
Boys 12 Year Olds 50m Backstroke
1st Ephraim Tan — 33.65
2nd Zachary Tan — 34.04
3rd Christian Low Tze Hang — 34.41
Boys 9 Year Olds 200m Freestyle
1st Marcus Choo Zhengxiang — 2:36.27
2nd Nathan Lim — 2:38.38
3rd Matthew Ang Yu Zhe — 2:39.66
Boys 10 Year Olds 200m Freestyle
1st Marc Lim Qi Xian — 2:29.78
2nd Ng Yi Wang — 2:30.95
3rd Lachlan Saputra Goh — 2:32.98
Boys 11 Year Olds 200m Freestyle
1st James Lim Chern Yait — 2:24.21
2nd Gabriel Koo Yingxuan — 2:24.26
3rd Connor Schuster — 2:25.33
Boys 12 Year Olds 200m Freestyle
1st Ephraim Tan — 2:16.45
2nd Max Teo Chun Sheng — 2:19.28
3rd Christian Low Tze Hang — 2:19.54
Boys Results – Day 3 (Afternoon Session)
Boys 8 Year Olds 100m Backstroke
1st Reagan Cheng — 1:30.37
2nd Zavv Lee Xian Le — 1:31.20
3rd Luke Ang Yukai — 1:33.72
Boys 9 Year Olds 100m Backstroke
1st Ewan Lee Yi Wei Pedersen — 1:22.88
2nd Nathan Lim — 1:25.14
3rd Rahul Viren Shah — 1:30.12
Boys 10 Year Olds 100m Backstroke
1st Marc Lim Qi Xian — 1:20.80
2nd Ng Yi Wang — 1:20.94
3rd Micaiah Tan — 1:21.43
Boys 11 Year Olds 100m Backstroke
1st Connor Schuster — 1:14.39
2nd Mateen Shyam — 1:14.70
3rd Gabriel Koo Yingxuan — 1:15.39
Boys 12 Year Olds 100m Backstroke
1st Ephraim Tan — 1:11.55
2nd Christian Low Tze Hang — 1:11.92
3rd Zachary Tan — 1:12.51
Boys 8 Year Olds 50m Breaststroke
1st Reagan Cheng — 46.83
2nd Zavv Lee Xian Le — 47.58
3rd Koh Kai Jie — 49.08
Boys 9 Year Olds 50m Breaststroke
1st Marcus Choo Zhengxiang — 40.70 (Meet Record)
2nd Matthew Ang Yu Zhe — 41.53
3rd Nathan Lim — 42.24
Boys 10 Year Olds 50m Breaststroke
1st Lennon Yu — 40.75
2nd Jerome Thio — 41.00
3rd Jayden Ko Qi Hao — 41.23
Boys 11 Year Olds 50m Breaststroke
1st Jadon Yoong Jia Zhong — 37.19
2nd Timothy Ting Jun-Hng — 38.30
3rd Marc Yeo Tze Wen — 38.46
Boys 12 Year Olds 50m Breaststroke
1st Terence Ong Yi Hao — 36.34
2nd Leon Tay Kia Yong — 36.66
3rd Alan Lo Ze — 36.79
Boys 8 Year Olds 100m Freestyle
1st Zavv Lee Xian Le — 1:17.97
2nd Reagan Cheng — 1:19.00
3rd Tiger Christiano Leecov — 1:24.02
Boys 9 Year Olds 100m Freestyle
1st Nathan Lim — 1:11.60
2nd Marcus Choo Zhengxiang — 1:11.79
3rd Matthew Ang Yu Zhe — 1:15.22
Boys 10 Year Olds 100m Freestyle
1st Marc Lim Qi Xian — 1:09.11
2nd Ng Yi Wang — 1:09.34
3rd Lachlan Saputra Goh — 1:11.57
Boys 11 Year Olds 100m Freestyle
1st James Lim Chern Yait — 1:05.70
2nd Keane Yong — 1:06.30
3rd Timothy Ting Jun-Hng — 1:06.76
Boys 12 Year Olds 100m Freestyle
1st Ephraim Tan — 1:03.23
2nd Alan Lo Ze — 1:04.18
3rd Christian Low Tze Hang — 1:04.44
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