St Joseph Private are new champions

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KUCHING: A record number of 36 new records were created after two days of competition in the 6th Samarahan-Kuching Divisions Inter Primary and Secondary Schools Swimming Championship that ended at the Pandelela Rinong Aquatics Centre in Petra Jaya yesterday.

Fifteen old records were broken on the first day of competition on Saturday while 22 were re-written on Sunday, with 31 in the individual events and five in the relays.

SJK Chung Hua No. 2 made a successful defence of their primary schools overall champions crown by amassing 323.50 points while main rivals SJK Chung Hua No. 4 could only settle for second place with 290 points.

The third to fourth-placed teams were Lodge Primary School with 169 points, St Joseph Private School (Primary) with 145 points and Tunku Putra Primary School just one point behind.

SJK Chung Hua No. 2 also walked away with a best swimmer award when Kelly Teo Yao was announced the best swimmer in the Girls Group D (9-10 years old) after capturing 10 individual gold medals.

The best girls in Group E (8 years and under) was Bibienne Ong Shu Yi of SJK St Paul who broke three records while winning eight golds and two silvers; Group C (11-12 years old) Zia Tan of St Joseph Private School (Primary) who broke one record, won six golds, two silvers and two bronzes; Group B (13-14 years old) Rachel Chang Yii Boon from SMK St Mary who broke two records, won eight golds and two silvers; and Zoe Tan of St Joseph Private School (Secondary) in Group A (15-17 years old) with four golds, two silvers and one bronze.

Lodge Secondary School failed to retain their secondary schools overall champions title as they could only garner 221 points to finish in fourth place this year.

The new overall champions were the 24-member strong St Joseph Private School (Secondary) who amassed 464 points to finish 100 points ahead of SMK Kuching High and SMK Batu Lintang came in third on 293 points.

In fifth place were SMK Padungan Kuching with 213 points.

Sukma swimmer Zachary Tan was the star performer for the overall champions as he splashed to 10 gold medals and breaking four new meet records in the process.

He was the best swimmer in the Boys Group B while Jonas Lau Jiang Le of SJK Chung Hua No. 4 in was the best boy in Group E with one record, 10 individual golds, one gold and one silver in the team events.

The Hii siblings of Puong Jie, Puong Wei and Puong continued to shine in the competitions and were the best boys in Group D, C and A respectively.

Puong Jie is from SJK Chung Hua Batu 4 1/2 and he broke two new records, won five golds and four silvers while SMK Batu Lintang’s Puong Wei broke seven records and captured nine golds and Puong Hou also from SMK Batu Lintang broke five records to bag five golds and three silvers.

A total of 293 students from 22 primary schools and kindergartens, and 17 secondary schools competed in 108 events over two days of intensive competition.

Amateur Swimming Association of Sarawak (Asas) president Dato Wee Hong Seng closed the event and gave away the main prizes.

Also present was Kota Samarahan Amateur Swimming Association (Kotas) president Alice Kwon.