Sabah swimmers bag six gold in SportExcel
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah’s young and talented swimmers did the state proud by winning six gold, five silver and two bronze medals in the recent SportExcel Junior Swimming Circuit Grand Final in Kuala Lumpur.
Samuel Ng was the toast of the state team by contributing three of the gold while Loo Yie Bing and Gerard Tsen bagged two and one gold respectively.
Ng also capped a fine outing with four meet records, two of which earned him the gold medals in the 50m freestyle and 50m butterfly respectively.
The Sandakan lad’s third gold came in the 50m breaststroke while he also added three silver in the 50m backstroke and 100m freestyle, both of which bettered the meet records, and the 100m backstroke.
The highlight of the competition came when Ng, 10, battered a record set by Rio Oympics gold medallist Joseph Schooling in the 50m Butterfly at 31.26s.
Schooling’s mark was 31.48s second set in the National Age Group Swimming Meet back in 2006 when the Singaporean swimming sensation turned out for the state his mother hails from, Perak.
Loo, on the other hand, was the youngest winner in the state squad where the nine-year-old Sandakan swimmer won gold in both the 50m and 100m freestyle.
Fourteen-year-old Tsen won the sixth gold while also adding one silver and one bronze.
The other medallists were Yong Ming Li (bronze in 50m freestyle) and Yong Zi Yi (silver in 100m backstroke).
Sabah Aquatic Sports Association (SASA) president Anthony Kiob extended his congratulations to the swimmers who have made the state proud.
While applauding the efforts and commitment of the swimmers, coaches and parents, Anthony also urged the continuation of great relationship with the association for the common goal of developing future champions.
“This is a great tune up meet for our potential swimmers and SASA will continue to send swimmers to SportsExcel meets as our main swimming development programme,” he was quoted in a statement to the press yesterday.
Towards this end, Anthony also expressed thanks to the Youth and Sports Minister and Sabah Sports Council (SSC) for the constant support they have given to the sport of aquatics.
For the record, Sabah sent a strong 13-athlete squad to the meet featuring age-group competitions from nine to 14 years old after gaining qualifications through the first and second leg of the competition held in April and May.
The team comprising swimmers from Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan were led by team manager Emily Chew and SSC High Performance Sports Unit coach Eric Chan.
The other swimmers were Lai Qian Ying, Sharon Voon Xue Ru, Yapp Kae Wen, Beverly Lai Mei Xi, Yong Xin Yi, Chong Ka Yong, Ben Yap Wai Hou and Shane Chang Kian Heuang.