Aquatic IG Conquers the Waves!

On the 8th of October, eight courageous swimmers from our very own Aquatic IG gathered to take part in the prestigious Fuji Xerox Singapore Open Water Swim 2007 event. Sponsors and organisers like Fuji Film, Singapore Swimming Association and Singapore Sports Council made this event possible. Top international swimmers from around the world competed in the 10km marathon swim event and compelled even the onlookers to suit up. There were also celebrity guests like Mr. Ang Peng Siong and Miss Christel Feng who joined in the crowds. As part of this event, a charity swim was also organised in order to help raise funds for the Children’s Cancer Foundation.

The event was made up of 500m , 1km , 3km and 5km swim distances, not forgetting the main 10km event swim which was even featured in the newspapers. Unfortunately, the 5km race was cancelled due to a heavy downpour in the afternoon. All eight Republic Polytechnic swimmers took part in the 3km individual swim event as well as team events. Each team consisted of four participants and the best 3 timings in each team were taken to calculate the team’s overall timing.

We are proud to announce that in the 3km Men’s Individual Open category swim, two of our male swimmers made it to the top 15.

Dharsaka Tennakoon clocked an overall time of 43:14 and finished a proud 7th position. Li Ning was not far behind. He clocked a time of 47:35 and came in 12th position. Pang Yong Kai and Lim Long Fei finished 33rd and 35th positions respectively out of 92 male competitors in the competition.

Not to be outdone, our three female competitors completed their 3km women’s individual open category swim in the following respectable times:

Jina Woo did us proud by finishing 6th and clocking a time of 48:46. Jin Zhuang completed the race with a timing of 1:03:05 and finished in 15th place. Also coming in a close 17th position was Eneida Tan who clocked a time of 1:05:39. For more information on results, you can click here.

Taking part in this event pushed us beyond our limits. Suffering at the hands of turbulent waves and swimming in zero-visibility waters also pushed us to conquer our fears. It was an exhausting task but we all came out of it relishing the sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. Thanks to Gary Su for giving us the opportunity to take part in such a prestigious event!    

Words by Eneida Tan (SEG, Year 1), Edited by Gary Su (OSG) - Advisor of Aquatic IG.