KUCHING, Feb 19: Some 250 young swimmers will have the chance to rise to stardom when the 5th PASC Inter-Primary School Swimming Competition is held at the Pandelela Rinong Aquatic Centre on April 5.
Power Aquatics Swimming Club (PASC) president Tan Kun Gee said the competition will be a platform for swimmers to display their talent at the grassroots levels as well as to learn sportsmanship, how to set their goals, the value of hard work, and how to cope with disappointment.
Gold, silver and bronze medals will be awarded for individual and team events (relay) to be competed over 50m to 100m distances in categories of freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke and butterfly, along with certificates of participation for all swimmers.
Trophies await the Best Boy and Best Girl teams and also the top swimmers in each age-group.
According to Tan, 242 athletes from 33 primary schools took part in last year’s event, and he believed there will be a bigger field this year.
Registration is now open to students in all primary schools in Kuching and Kota Samarahan divisions. Closing date is on March 13 at 5pm.
Each swimmer may only participate in a maximum of five individual events while each school can only submit one team per relay event.
Further inquiries can be made by emailing paswimmingclub@gmail.com or contacting Voon at 016-8885623.
Meanwhile, Tan noted that the recent achievement by PASC swimmers at the 47th Sarawak Age Group (SAG) Swimming Championship in Sibu was something to be proud of because it showed that they were on the right track, and that there are actually many talented swimmers from the state.
“These swimmers could be the pride of the future, to make our state and country proud. I believe that there are many other talented swimmers out there waiting for the opportunity to shine. With the full support and right programmes given by the state government and relevant authorities, we can make the state achieve its vision to become one of the sports powerhouses in the country,” he added.
He disclosed that a total of 16 PASC swimmers who were parked under the Kota Samarahan Amateur Swimming Association (Kotas) brought home 44 gold, 20 silver and 30 bronze medals from the swimming championship.
Three of the swimmers, Darren Leong, Dylan Leong, and Bibienne Ong, won best swimmer titles under their respective age group. Dylan also set a new record in the 50m breaststroke event for Boys Group D category.
The Leong brothers had also qualified under Category A to compete in the 56th MILO/PRAM Malaysia Invitational Age Group Swimming Championships 2020 to be held from March 5 to 8 in Kuala Lumpur.
“We are very proud of all the swimmers. They have worked so hard for this. We have confidence that we can do better in next years SAG swimming championship,” Tan added. — DayakDaily
