School Sports: 10 records fall as SEA Games-bound swimmers hit form
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Louisa Goh And Charmaine Ng
THE first day of the Schools National Swimming Championships saw 10 meet records smashed at the Singapore Sports School yesterday.
SEA Games-bound swimmer Christie May Chue was the outstanding performer as the CHIJ Katong Convent student shattered two long-standing B Division meet records.
First, she clocked 2min 3.69sec in the girls' 200m freestyle to eclipse the previous mark of 2min 6.79sec set by Christel Bouvron in 2000, the third-oldest mark at the championships.
Then, in the girls' 50m free, she clocked 33.45sec, 0.8sec faster than the eight-year-old meet record set by Roanne Ho.
"I didn't taper my training sessions for this meet, so it was a surprise," said Christie of breaking the two records while she is training hard for June's SEA Games.
Her national team-mate Nur Marina Chan also rewrote two meet records. She shaved 0.01sec off her previous mark of 29.94sec in the A Division Girls' 50m butterfly, then clocked 1:02.13 in the 100 fly, 0.44 faster than Meagan Lim's old 2013 mark.
She also helped her Anglo Chinese Junior College 4x50m freestyle relay team win a gold in 1:52.04.
Another national swimmer, Samuel Khoo, rewrote his national team-mate Brilliant Chua's six-day-old B Division boys' 200m breaststroke record of 2:23.84 set on April 16, clocking 2:21.91 to win gold.
It was a big surprise for the Raffles Institution student, who said: "My 200m breaststroke has always been weak, but my timing has been consistently improving since I joined the national squad."
Meanwhile, Dylan Koo of Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) improved on his B Division boys' 100 fly record by 0.68sec, with a 55.79sec effort in the final.
One of the youngest male swimmers representing Singapore at the SEA Games, the 16-year-old did not expect to clock a sub-56sec timing.
"This gives me the confidence to do something great for myself and my country, and show everyone that I can produce good results despite my age," he said.
Francis Fong, also of ACS(I), beat Quah Zheng Wen's 2011 record in the B Division boys' 200m backstroke, clocking 2:08.53sec, shaving 0.63sec off the previous record.
