ACS(I) beat Raffles Institution in last race to win overall A Div girls’ swimming title for the first time

SINGAPORE – Ahead of the final A Division girls’ race in the National School Games swimming championships on April 24, Raffles Institution (RI) sat atop this category’s standings with 172 points, just a point ahead of Anglo-Chinese School (Independent).

But the tables were turned as ACS(I)’s Jeriel Lee, Loy Min Min, Kate Ona and Zahra Izam clocked 1min 49.90sec to win the girls’ 4x50m freestyle relay, beating RI by just 0.51sec.

The win took ACS(I)’s tally to 180 points, helping them wrest the A Division girls’ title by just one point from their rivals. A race win in the NSG earns nine points, with second place getting seven points.

RI’s Kaska Watkins, Joelle Tan, Julia Taguchi and Kayla Koh finished second in 1:50.41, while Anglo-Chinese Junior College’s Nicole Castro, Low Yin-Rae, Kaylene Lim and Megan Cheong were third in 1:54.64.

ACS(I) captain Kate admitted that there were some challenges, but was “beyond proud of this team” as they helped the school win the A Division girls’ overall title for the first time.

The 18-year-old said: “I feel like they’ve really put the team before themselves and I’m really proud of how we all came together to make history.

“Right before this (last race), one of our relay teammates (Jeriel) just got a disqualification, which was very surprising. We already thought we had a clear lead, but this (disqualification) pulled us back and made the difference to one point… So winning this relay was essential for us to win.”

The team thought that they had secured nine points when Jeriel touched the wall first in the earlier 100m butterfly event, but officials ruled that she had “initiated a start before the signal”.

She was then disqualified, with the win awarded to RI’s Julia, whose teammates Muse Goh and Seira Yang finished second and third respectively.

ACS(I) also swept the boys’ overall titles across the A, B and C Divisions for a second consecutive year to maintain their stranglehold on the sport, having also gotten clean sweeps from 2013 to 2019.

Methodist Girls’ School (MGS) were crowned both B and C Division girls’ champions for a fourth consecutive year.

Three meet records also fell on the final day of swimming.

MGS’ Megan Yo clocked 1:00.76 in the B Division girls’ 100m butterfly final to eclipse her 2025 record of 1:00.83, finishing ahead of teammate Keira Chew (1:02.80). Singapore Sports School’s (SSP) Heather Teo was third in 1:05.50.

It marked a third consecutive year that she had broken the record, having first lowered the mark when she was competing in the C Division in 2024.

On her latest win, the 16-year-old said: “It feels really, really great. I am really proud of myself and how I’ve been able to achieve these records, but I know that there’s still a lot of room for improvement.

“When I was swimming, the only thing that was on my mind was to just focus on the process and not the result.

“So before my swim, I visualised it like how I wanted to race and I think that the only thing I’m racing is myself and I shouldn’t really focus on breaking the record.”

There were also records in B Division boys’ and girls’ 50m breaststroke finals, with RI’s Andrew Yeo and Raffles Girls’ School’s (RGS) Chen Yue Jia bettering the respective meet marks.

Yue Jia had touched the wall first in 32.68sec, 0.10sec faster than her timing in the heats on April 22. MGS’ Elizabeth Low was second in 35.00sec, ahead of RGS’ Rianne Sim (35.48sec).

Yue Jia, 14, who had suffered a strained knee in January, said: “I’m feeling great and this is really a pleasure, because just three months ago I injured my knee and coming to this meet, I was not expecting to break the record and clinch this gold medal.”

In the B Division boys’ 50m breaststroke final, Andrew clocked 29.11sec to lower his April 22 heats record by 0.01sec. SSP’s Zavier Tay was second in 29.65sec, ahead of RI’s Jerrel Ong (30.78sec).