Kotas dominate the pool at SAG Swimming C’ship

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Kotas president Alice Kwon (centre) celebrates the victory with the swimmers and officials after the prize presentation.

KUCHING: Kota Samarahan Amateur Swimming Association (Kotas) stamped their domination in the 46th Sarawak Age Group (SAG) Swimming Championship that ended at the Pandelela Rinong Aquatic Centre, Petra Jaya last Sunday.

They led from the start to finish to accumulate 1,870.50 to top the five-team competition involving 319 swimmers over three days of intense competition.

Their closest rival Kuching Amateur Swimming Association (Kasa) 2010 were 224.50 points behind while Miri Amateur Swimming Association (Masa) finished third with 831 points.

The fourth and fifth positions remained unchanged with Sibu Amateur Swimming Association (Sasa) collecting 701.50 points and Bintulu Amateur Swimming Association (Basa) 532 points respectively.

Kotas also lifted the Boys team title when they collected 1,046.5 points while the Girls team title went to Kasa 2010 who collected 885 points.

Kotas earned more honours as they bagged six out of the 10 best swimmer awards.

Sukma swimmer Hii Puong Wei was undoubtedly the best performer in the championship as he set seven new records (50m backstroke, 100m backstroke, 200m backstroke, 50m breaststroke, 50m butterfly, 100m breaststroke and 400m individual medley) and captured 12 gold, three silver and one bronze medals.

This excellent showing won the student from SMK Batu Lintang the Boys A (15-17 years) Best Swimmer award.

Puong Wei’s younger brother Puong Jie also impressed in the meet by bagging 13 gold and three bronze medals to walk away with the best boy award in the Boys C (11-12 years).

The other best boy swimmers were Boys B (13-14 years) Toh Bock Zien of Sasa who won five gold, three silver and two bronze; Boys D (9-10 years) Darren Leong of Kotas with one new record, five gold and two silver; Boys E (8 & Under) Cayden Mineve Chin of Kotas with two new records, seven gold and three silver.

The best girl swimmers from Kotas were Natasha Teo in Group A with five gold and one silver and her younger sister Kelly Teo with four new records, 11 gold and three silver.

Angelica Rachel Caroll of Masa won the Girls B best swimmer award when she bagged five gold and four silver while the other best girl swimmers were Kasa 2010’s Vanessa Liew Xing Yi who had four gold and two silver and Shanise Jauwa Josline who bagged four gold, four silver and two bronze.

Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, who closed the event, said he was happy to see many young swimmers from all over Sarawak taking part in the meet.

“The big number of young swimmers as well as the older age group swimmers competing in this championship from the development programmes shows that Sarawak swimming is on the right track.

“I understand that 18 records were broken in the age group competition for the past few days and this reflects the kind of development that the affiliates have been doing.

“I hope that all the respective affiliates will work closely with the Amateur Swimming Association of Sarawak (Asas) to make Sarawak the swimming powerhouse,” he said.

Karim also hoped to see all sports associations put aside misunderstandings with their affiliates and let the athletes compete in harmony and good sportsmanship in competitions.

Also present were Assistant Sports Minister Datuk Snowdan Lawan, Asas president Dato Wee Hong Seng, Kasa 2010 president Frankie Lau and deputy president cum organising chairman Kelvin Yeo.