Sibu’s best pose at the end of the recent age-group championship.
SIBU: They won at least five gold medals each. Cindy Sui from SMK Methodist actually swept 16 in 16 events. And SMK Chung Hua’s Nee Gui Ping smashed six records. They were the best swimmers in the various categories of the Sibu Age-group championship which ended at Bukit Lima here last weekend.
State swimmer Nee Gui Ping amassed 10 gold and seven silver to grab the Best Boy’s B title.
The six records were the 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle, 200m individual medley, 50m butterfly, 50m backstroke and 200m butterfly.
A butterfly specialist, Nee could have registered seven records had he not suffered a disqualification in the 100m butterfly.
“Overall, I am still quite happy with my performance though I did not reach my target of getting 10 records,” said the 16-year-old.
Nevertheless, Nee promised to deliver at the Sarawak Age-group championship to be held in Kuching from Feb 27 to March 1.
Fellow state swimmer and school mate Ngu Jiung Wei collected 11 gold and four silver with a record in the 1,500m freestyle to lift the Boy’s A best swimmer title.
The Boy’s C best swimmer award went to Joey Wong of SJK Chung Sing who bagged nine gold and seven silver.
Eden Toh Bock Zien from SJK Su Lai collected nine gold and two silver to emerge the Boy’s D best boy while the Boy’s E title went to Oswin Ung Shidon of SK Perbandaran No. 4 with his six gold and five silver.
For her 16-gold feat, Cindy was judged the Girl’s A best swimmer.
SMK Chung Hua’s Nee Qiao Yuan garnered 15 gold medals to receive the Girl’s B accolade.
Best in Girl’s C was Angel Lau of SMK Tung Hua with five gold, seven silver and a new record.
Adeline Lau Jaw Ling of SJK Thai Kwang was Girl’s D best girl with seven gold and three silver while Ivy Ning Chai Yun with her 10-gold haul was Girl’s E best girl.
State coach Hii Hieng Chiong, however, said the performance of the swimmers were nothing to shout about, though there was a slight improvement.
“The swimmers still have a long way to go if we are to catch the glory days of the yesteryears,” he explained.
Hii, however, sounded more upbeat concerning the introduction of the category E for this year championship.
“Kuching and Kota Samarahan Division had been doing that for the past two years with great results. We are two years behind but it’s better late than never,”he said.
“It’s still too early to see results now and hopefully, in a few years, we will be able to catch up with Kuching and Kota Samarahan Divisions in producing champions.”