Wee (second right) sounding the air horn to flag off the 27th Kuching Age Group Swimming Championship at the Aquatic Centre, Youth and Sports Complex yesterday. Looking on from right are referee Jeffrey Sim, organising chairman Dr Alexander Likow Giap and referee Andrew Wong.
KUCHING: Five records tumbled on the first day of the 27th Kuching Age Group Swimming Championship at the Aquatic Centre, Youth and Sports Complex, Jalan Tun Ahmad Zaidi Adruce yesterday.
Among them was the six-year old record of 1:08.20s owned by Erika Kong Chia Chia in the Girls Group 2 100m butterfly which was shattered by 14-year old Tan Tyng from Chung Hua Middle School No. 1 with a new time of 1:07.59s.
Tan also splashed to gold medals in the 200m breaststroke, 100m freestyle, 200m individual medley, 800m freestyle, 400m freestyle, 100m butterfly and 50m breaststroke. She stands as the favourite to clinch the Best Girl award for her group.
Adrian Chua Wei Kiat of SMK Kuching High lowered his own Boys Group 100m freestyle record of 1:00.10s set last year to under a minute with 59.63s.
The Boys Group 2 200m individual medley record of 2:23.84s set by Welson Sim in 2012 was re-written by Zachary Tan from St Joseph Private Secondary School with a time of 2:23.15s.
In the Boys Group 1 400m freestyle, Anson Go Guang Ping of SMK Batu Lintang clocked 4:14.62s to erase the old mark of 4:21.06s set by Roydon Ong in 2013.
Hii Puong Wei of SJK Chung Hua Batu 4.5 broke the Boys Group 3 200m backstroke record of 2:39.62s set by Zachary Tan last year with the new time of 2:37.97s.
At the end of the first day of competition, defending champions SMK Batu Lintang led the race for the challenge trophy in the secondary school section with 279 points. They are followed by SMK Kuching High with 219 points and Lodge Secondary School with 144 points.
The leader in the primary schools section was defending champions SJK Chung Hua No. 2 who amassed 233 points ahead of SJK Chung Hua Batu 4.5 (127 points) and SJK Chung Hua No.4 (120 points).
In his opening speech, Kuching Amateur Swimming Association (Kasa) 2010 president Dato Wee Hong Seng remarked on the growth of competitive swimming in Kuching.
“This year, we are humble to contribute to a record-breaking mark with the participation of 255 swimmers from 36 schools in 152 time final events,” he said.
Wee, also the Amateur Swimming Association of Sarawak (Asas) president, took the opportunity to thank the Sarawak State Sports Council, sponsors and volunteers as well as the support from the association’s technical officials, swimmers and their parents in making the meet a successful one.
He said Kasa 2010 is committed to grass roots development by unearthing precautious and talented young swimmers.
Kasa 2010, he added, is quietly confident that it will play a big part in next year’s Sukma, both in the competition as well as contributing to the efforts of the organising host.