Swimmers break 16 records at 49th National Inter-School Championships

Story by Les Tan. Pictures by Ng Cheng Cong.

Daniel Tay of RI in the 100m butterfly came home in a time of 59.71sec to win gold. (Photo 1 © Ng Cheng Cong/Red Sports)

Singapore Sports School, July 8 & 9, 2008 – 16 meet records were broken at the recently concluded 49th National Inter-School Swimming Championships with Edith Ong of Raffles Junior College breaking a record four times throughout the championships.

Edith broke the meet record swimming in the A Division girls 50m backstroke heats with a time of 32.33 seconds and then went on to break her own record in the final with a time of 31.80s. Edith then repeated the pattern for the 100m backstroke, finishing the heats in a record time of 1min 9.12s then breaking that in the final with a time of 1m 9.04s.

Mirroring her was Lionel Khoo of Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) who broke the meet record with a time of 1m 8.61s in the C Division boys 100m breaststroke heats, and then following that up with another record in the final with a time of 1m 8.40s.

Lim Xiang Qi of Singapore Sports School won both the B Division girls 400m and 800m freestyle golds, setting new records of 4m 30.89s and 9m 21.82s respectively.

Koh Hui Yu of Raffles Girls’ School set a new record time of 59.47s in the C Division girls 100m freestyle to put herself on a good footing for next week’s ASEAN Swimming Championships in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

“I wasn’t expecting it,” said the 13-year-old Secondary 1 student. When asked about next week’s ASEAN meet, she said: “I’m very excited about representing Singapore next week.”

Hui Yu will compete in the 50m, 100m, 800m freestyle and 200m individual medley races.

One of the most exciting races was the A Division 4x50m individual medley relay race on Tuesday, July 8. The ACS(I) and RJC quartet exchanged leads throughout the race and were neck-and-neck during the butterfly leg. In the freestyle leg, ACS(I) touched home first in 1min 50.25sec, just ahead of RJC in 1m 50.53s.

The ACS(I) quartet that established a new record in the C Division 4x50m individual medley relay. They came home in a time of 1m 54.12s. From left to right: Eugene Tan, Joseph Schooling, Nicholas Ho and Lionel Khoo. (Photo 2 © Ng Cheng Cong/Red Sports)

Khoonie Liang (left) of RJC on her way to winning the 100m breakstroke gold in a time of 1m 19.89s. (Photo 3 © Ng Cheng Cong/Red Sports)

Zach Ong of ACS(I) starts his 200m backstroke race. He finished first in 2m 14.12s. (Photo 4 © Ng Cheng Cong/Red Sports)

Charles Tan of RI won the B Division 50m freestyle gold in 24.69s and let out a yell of happiness because this was the first time he had beaten Andy Loo of ACS(I) since Primary 3. Andy finished third in 25.61s. (Photo 5 © Ng Cheng Cong/Red Sports)

Koh Hui Yu of RGS set a new record time of 59.47s in the C Division girls 100m freestyle. (Photo 6 © Ng Cheng Cong/Red Sports)

More pictures in the gallery.