St Joseph’s Private School won the secondary schools competition for the second consecutive year.
KUCHING: Defending champions SJK Chung Hua No. 2 and St Joseph’s Private School made a successful defence of their titles in the 7th Samarahan-Kuching Divisions Primary & Secondary Inter-School Swimming Championships that ended at the Sarawak Aquatic Centre in Petra Jaya yesterday.
SJK Chung Hua No. 2 also got to keep the Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah Challenge Trophy by winning the championship for three consecutive years.
Trailing SJK Chung Hua No. 4 by only six points on Saturday, SJK Chung Hua No. 2 rebounded strongly yesterday to accumulate 391 points and beat the former by 19 points for the crown.
They also walked away with two best girl swimmers awards, with the Girls Group D honour going to Kelly Teo Yao and Girls Group E going to Vanessa Liew Xing Yi.
Kelly was the winner of 10 gold medals and broke four meet records while Vanessa bagged five gold, one silver and three bronze medals and created two new records.
SK Green Road finished in third place with 132 points, followed by St Joseph’s Private School and SJK Chung Hua Batu 4 1/2 in fourth and fifth spots respectively.
In the secondary schools sections, St Joseph’s Private School also bounced back to collect 477.50 points to top the contest.
The school’s star performer Zachary Tan stamped his status as a state Sukma swimmer by sweeping seven gold, one silver and two bronze medals in the individual events and also cracking six meet records in the process.
However, Tan Tyng hogged the limelight when she captured eight gold medals out of as many events in the Girls Group A category.
Tan set seven new meet records out of the eight events (200m IM, 50m breaststroke, 50m butterfly, 100m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 100m butterfly and 50m freestyle) she participated in to be the undisputed best swimmer in Girls Group A (15-17).
SMK Kuching High gave a good fight to the champions and the first day leader collected 448 points to maintain their first runners-up status.
In third place were Lodge School with 272 points while former champions SMK Batu Lintang settled for fourth place with 247.5 points, followed by SMK Padungan with 131 points.
Meanwhile, the other winners of the best boy swimmers awards were Hii Puong Wei of SMK Batu Lintang in Group B (10 golds, 4 new records), Vince Kuek Yong Xi of SMK Green Road in Group C (6 golds, 2 silvers), Hii Puong Jie of SJK Chung Hua Batu 4 ½ in Group D (8 golds, 2 silvers, 4 new records), and Ong Zong Lian from SJK Sam Hap Hin in Group E (5 golds, 2 silvers, 1 new record)
The best girl swimmer in Group B was Rachel Chang Yii Boon of SMK St Mary who won eight golds and set three new records, Andrea Teo Yi of SMK Kuching High in Group C with eight golds.
A total of 39 new records were created in the annual meet organised by Kota Samarahan Amateur Swimming Association (Kotas).
Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah closed the event and gave away the main prizes.
Also present were Sarawak Sports Corporation CEO Dr Ong Kong Swee, Amateur Swimming Association of Sarawak president Dato Wee Hong Seng and Kotas president Alice Kwon.