TAISM clinch overall honours at SAISA Swimming Championships
MUSCAT: Hosts The American International School of Muscat (TAISM) won the overall honours at the South Asian Inter-Schools Association (SAISA) Swimming Championships, which they organised here last week.
According to information provided by the school, the TAISM, who had previously hosted football as well as track and field events, organised the swimming competition for the first time and welcomed 210 swimmers of 10-19 age groups and 20 coaches.
Besides the hosts, the other participating teams were American International School of Chennai (India), American International School of Dhaka (Bangladesh), American School of Bombay (India), Karachi American School (Pakistan), Lincoln School-Kathmandu (Nepal) and Overseas Schools of Colombo (Sri Lanka).
The annual championships was organised over three consecutive days with six swimming sessions under the supervision of TAISM Athletic Director Luther Rauk.
The competitions, officiated by Oman Swimming Association officials, were held in three age group categories - 10-12 years, 1314 years and 15-19 years, and included breaststroke, backstroke, freestyle, butterfly, individual medley and relays.
TAISM emerged the overall champions with 1,906 points after having won 20 gold, 20 silver and 24 bronze medals.
Second place went to the Karachi American School, who garnered 1,445 points with 21 gold, 15 silver and 13 bronze medals.
American International School of Dhaka claimed the third place with 1,197 points. They bagged 10 gold, 11 silver and five bronze medals.
The TAISM team, comprising 30 swimmers, have been training for the last three months under the watchful eyes of their American coach Kathy Walker.
The school, meanwhile, informed that TAISM girls teams were extremely strong this year as they broke seven SAISA records.
Neive Cosker (10-12) broke re- cords in girls 100m breaststroke ( 1:29.62) and 50m breaststroke ( 40.05). Emma Grossback (1314) broke the 200m breaststroke (3:10.00) record.
The girls team (15-19) consisting of Serena Lee, Emma Grossback, Kate Phoonsiri and Elisa Camero set in new marks in 200m freestyle relay (2:00.34) and 200m medley relay (2:19.30).
The team (10-12) of Louisa Perdiguero, Neive Cosker, Janine Kluknavsky and My-Lynh Gelinas broke the 200m medley record (2:30.77). The team (10-12) of Louisa Perdiguero, My-Lynh Gelinas, Janine Kluknavsky and Serena Lee broke the 400m freestyle record (5:04.60).