The best swimmers posing with Dr Sim (centre), organising chairperson Alice Kwon (left) and (from fourth right) Ivan Chu and Johnny Wong after receiving their trophies.
KUCHING: Sea Dragons of Kota Kinabalu breathed fire at the Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr Wong Soon Kai Inter-Club Swimming Championship to lift the overall team title in the championship that ended at the Sarawak Aquatic Centre in Petra Jaya yesterday.
The club, which is one of the top swimming clubs in Sabah, collected 515.50 points to top the two-day prestigious championship jointly organised by Kuching Amateur Swimming Association (Kasa) 2010 and Kota Samarahan Amateur Swimming Association (Kotas).
They picked up another honour as Yung Xing Ru was named the Group D (9-10 years old) Best Girl swimmer after she captured six gold medals.
“We are very happy to have won the overall team title and this has proven to be a very fruitful outing for us. We did not expect to win in Kuching as the competition was very keen and many teams fielded good swimmers,” said Sea Dragon Swimming Club team manager Ivan Chu.
It was also the second victory outside Sabah for the club who won the overall championship title in the Gymkhana Club Miri invitational swimming championship in April.
“Credit goes to the kids who have trained very hard and also to the coaches Johnny Wong, Eva Wong and Jimmy Wong for guiding the swimmers and the parents for their unwavering support,” added Chu.
According to him, it was also splendid exposure for the young swimmers and he was happy to watch them grow and develop into champions over the years.
Persatuan Renang Daerah Penampang pipped Sarawak Club to the second place when they collected 423.50 points against the latter’s 399.50 points.
Close behind in fourth place were Sibu Amateur Swimming Association (Sasa) on 395.50 points and Serian Amateur SA (SSA) fifth on 338.50 points.
As expected, Hii Puong Wei of SSA won the Best Boy award in Group 3 (11-12 years old) after he bagged eight gold medals and broke three meet records in the 50m backstroke, 100m backstroke and 100m freestyle.
His younger brother Puong Jie walked away with the Best Boy award in Group D (9-10 years old) when he captured three gold, one silver and two bronze.
SSA lifted the third individual award in Group 5 (8 and under) when Jonas Lau Jiang Le impressed with two records, six gold, one silver and one bronze.
Sarawak Club took two honours with Zachary Tan (one record, seven golds and one silver) and Ngu Jiung Wei (one record, four golds, one silver and one bronze) named Best Boy in Group 2 (13-14 years old) and Group 1 (15-17 years old) respectively.
Meanwhile, the Best Girl swimmers were Miri Amateur Swimming Association’s Leong Wan Mei in Group 1 (one record, three gold, one silver), Laura Atkinson of Pade Supersharkz, Selangor in Group 2 (one rec and two gold), Janetty John Fabian of Persatuan Renang Daerah Penampang (one rec, one gold, three silvers and one bronze) and Kayley Goh of Royal Brunei Recreation Club with four gold, one silver and one bronze.
Eleven new records were created in the championship that was closed by Minister of Local Government Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian. He also approved a grant of RM10,000 for the organising of the meet that was participated by 376 swimmers from 14 teams.