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.
I’m Jimmy I’m LAOS singapore swimmers is great i want to be like them especially nicolas (or) Ho wei ming that he is my idols i wish to go to singapore someday
I mean, competition is inevitable, so its up to the students to keep it healthy,friendly and constructive—-A HOPE
Nigel, your keyword : “..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. ”
Keyword : those who went RI find ACSI NOT AS ATTRACTIVE.
Point in case, as raised by admiration : ” While many stay on, some have chosen to ‘defect’ ”
IMPLICATION : more find ACSI more attractive, thats why more stay on than cross over to RI.
Attractive means- very pleasing in appearance, or causing great interest.
When you make a comparison btw 2 entities, it would imply 1 is better than the other.
Thats why what you said had backfired as in admiration’s context.
Frankly, its not fair to compare the 2 schools. Both are leading premier institutions, with sports and academic excellence.
Both schools produce the best in all fields.
The essential difference is the ‘ Spiritual ‘ development, that ACS places no less paramount
Its up to the students to keep it healthy, friendly and constructive.
Enlightened???
We’ll see about next year! It’s gonna be a tough fight!
“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.”
Okay I’m not sure how I “ensnared” myself, can someone enlighten me?
Keyword is “SOME”. I’m not saying RI is better than ACS, all I’m saying is that to SOME swimmers, RI holds more appeal. Not everyone sees things the same way.
its interesting to see you noobs talk when u guys dont even know anything about swimming
ACSI A Div does not have enough swimmers.
We have the quality, lacking quantity.
Cos its only our 2nd year IB and our cohort is very small, less than half the normal JCs.
ACSI(IB) intake is capped to a small number given the elite nature of the IB Programme.
Hope the intake can increase over time and we will surely be a force to reckon with.
admiration:
All of our star swimmers are poached.
While many stay on, some have chosen to ‘defect’
Nigel:
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
Nigel, you’ve ensnared yourself by your own statement.
It only goes to show more find ACS attractive and hence stay, spurning RI.
Tian Kai, dun talk soccer here la. Those are multi-million $ biz transactions.
No face of humanity
I respect how admiration magnanimously phrase it, without resentment to the few that went to RI.