Swimmers making record splash in Brunei pool

FOUR National Age Group records came crumbling down on the first day of 17th Brunei Age Group Swimming Championships at the Hassanal Bolkiah National Sports Complex swimming pool.

Three records were broken by swimmers from the Department of Youth and Sports Scheme while the other was achieved by a swimmer from the Royal Brunei Recreation Club (RBRC).

The three swimmers from the Department of Youth and Sports Scheme were Desmond Lee Edward, Anderson Lim Chee Wei and Alissa Yong Zhi Sang.

Edward broke a three-year-old record set by Felix Lee Zhee Yang when he swam with a time of 18:56.71 in the Group 2 Boys' (13-14 years) 1,500m event. The old record stood at 19:10.50.

Anderson then bettered his own record of 1:08.62 set in the Arafura Games in Darwin earlier this year in the Group 2 Boys' (13-14 years) 100m fly by more than a second with a new time of 1:07.33.

The record for the Group 5 Girls' (eight years and below) 50m breaststroke event was broken by Yong with a new time of 56.59 seconds. The old record, set back in March 2007 by Jocelyn Wong, was at 57.58s.

The only swimmer from RBRC to break a record yesterday was Muhd Isa Ahmad, who shattered the Group 4 Boys' (9-10 years) 50m freestyle event with a time of 32.61s.

Md Bahrin Shah Behrom Shah held the previous record set in September 2003 with a time of 33.81s.

Edward, 14, who has been swimming since the age of seven, only had two weeks of training prior to the tournament.

'I would like to give all the credit to my coach, Eva Wong, who has pushed me to train," said Edward.

A special athlete, Hj Rusdi Hj Sulaiman, also braved the pool to compete against other competitors in the 50m freestyle event of the Open Category.

"This is a good opportunity for me to compete and swim with other rivals. It is also a good practice as my coach has asked me to prepare for the upcoming 5th Asean Para Games," said Hj Rusdi.

The championship will continue today and will run until July 5 with the closing ceremony to be held at the same venue at 3.30pm.

The competition is organised by the Brunei Amateur Swimming Association with the support and co-operation of the Department of Youth and Sports of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports.

The Brunei Times