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- The PASC swimmers, officials and parents pose for a group photograph at the end of the Brunei Age Group swimming competition.
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- Voon Yong Hui
KUCHING: Power Aquatic Swimming Club (PASC) of Kuching enjoyed a commendable outing at the 25th Brunei Age Group Swimming Championships at the Hassanal Bolkiah National Swimming Pool in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei last week (Apr 28-30).
Despite fielding a small team of 18 swimmers aged seven to 13, they finished in fifth place out of the 13 clubs after capturing nine gold, 13 silver and 17 bronze medals.
Sea Dragon Swimming Club were crowned the overall champions after they won 38 golds,17 silvers and 17 bronzes, followed by Indonesia Swimming Team (35-16-16), Gymkhana Club Miri (32-43-20) and Royal Brunei Recreation Club (27-38-22).
The three-day meet organised by the Brunei Amateur Swimming Association saw the participation of 305 swimmers from clubs in Labuan, Miri, Kuching, Kota Kinabalu, Jakarta, Makassar and Brunei.
Other clubs in the meet were Brunei Speed Swimming Club, International School Brunei, Panaga Stingrays, Persatuan Renang Labuan, Dolphin Swimming Club, Kelab Rekreasi Petroliam, Jerudong Swimming Club and Skim Latihan Renang Tutong.
Presley Phang Yi Qi was the star performer of the team, bagging five golds and one silver to clinch the best swimmer award in the Boys U9 category.
The other golds were delivered by Genevieve Liew Zhi Ni (Girls 10-11 100m breaststroke, 50m breaststroke), Ong Zong Lian (Boys 9 50m butterfly) and Dylan Leong Yi Quan (Boys 8 50m breaststroke).
PASC team, whose training bases are at Stampark Water Park and the Aquatic Centre of Excellence, Youth and Sports Complex, was managed by Dominic Liew and coached by Steven Diong.
“It was a good achievement by the PASC team although we were sending young swimmers to the Brunei meet which was mainly for exposure,” said PASC advisor Voon Yong Hui.
It was PASC’s first outing outside the country and their third outside Sarawak after joining the age group meets in Malacca in April and Negeri Sembilan in September last year.
The club also participate in local swimming competitions.
Voon is extremely excited and pleased with the performance of the swimmers especially Presley Phang who had only taken up swimming lessons since he was seven years old, training and competing in the following year.
“Our next competition will be the ASUM-MSN-Junior Splash Swimming Competition in Kuala Lumpur in mid July which is also another good venue for the exposure of our swimmers,” added Voon who is national head coach for the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games 2017 water polo team.
PASC was registered with the Sarawak Sports Commissioner in February 2016 and presently has 43 swimmers aged six to 13 who are coached by Voon himself, Steven Diong, Steven Law and Peter Voon.
“We are focusing on developing young swimmers an groom them into high calibre swimmers for the state and country.
“However, Sarawak is in vital need of full-time and very experienced coaches who are also well-versed in sports science and modern training methods,” he pointed out.
Voon hoped that the government and the state swimming body Amateur Swimming Association of Sarawak could organise more coaching courses.
Apart from that, he felt that more swimming competitions should be organised in the state to give the swimmers more exposure.
“Look at swimming competitions in West Malaysia … there are almost swimming events being organised every month and take for example the Kuala Lumpur meet that we are going to in July will see more that 700 swimmers taking part.
“Just imagine how competitive it is over there and also the clubs in West Malaysia hire good and experienced coaches, some even from overseas,” he stated.