Ikan Bilis Swimming Club (1971) KL: 48th National Age Group Swimming Championship 2012

The 48th Milo/PRAM National Age Group Swimming Championship 2012, held from 6 -8 April 2012, has been more abuzz this year as it is also an Olympic qualifying event sanctioned by FINA. This has attracted foreign teams from Hong Kong, India and Guam who flew in to participate the event at The National Aquatic Centre in Bukti Jalil, apart from our very own local teams.

The KL Swim Team has sent a total of 51 swimmers to represent the Wilayah Persekutuan (WP) and they all did well in helping the KL Team collect points. Few new impressive records were already charted by the KL Team on the first day of the meet.

Wong Jun Bin, 12 (in red cap) with his competitors, all ready to take the plunge

The first remarkable performance was achieved by Wong Jun Bin who broke the opening event 101 for 1500m freestyle (boys 11-12) by clocking a new record time of 17:42.00s, shedding off more than 14 seconds from the previous record of 17:56.59s held by Ngu Jiung Wei last year.

Tan Rou Ying, 12 also did us proud by smashing the 800m freestyle record together with a Hong Kong swimmer where both of them achieved better times compared to the previous record held by Angela Chieng of 10:01.18s. Rou Ying, fondly known as Bonnie, came in second (9:48.13s) behind Hong Kong swimmer, Cheng Cin Ying who claimed the gold medal with a new time of 9:37.26s.

Bonnie Tan broke the 800m freestyle record under the 12 years category

Later in the day the meet became more exciting when national swimmer, Ian James Barr broke 2 NAG records. In the 200m breaststroke Ian touched first at 2:23.85s to tumble down Lau Zheng Fong's 2009 record of 2:25.88s. He then re-wrote his own record of 2:11.60s in the 200m IM by renewing his time at 2:08.91s ahead of 2 Hong Kong swimmers. On the second day, Ian went on his record-breaking spree by re-writing his previous year's record of 4:44.24s in the 400m IM to achieve a new time of 4:42.11s. Ian continued to be champion of the pool on the third day in the 50m backstroke by renewing his 2011 record of 27.39 when he dipped lower at 27.24 and then again in the 100m breaststroke erasing his own record two years ago of 1:06.87s with an improved time of 1:06.67s.

Meanwhile, Christina Loh also broke her own record in tandem with her Hong Kong counterpart, Fiona Ma, where Fiona reached a second faster than Christina by clocking 2:37.78s, whilst Christina finished second at 2:38.94s, both times erased Christina's last year own record of 2:45.00s in the 200m breaststroke event. Mak Ai Sin came in third at 2:46.77s in the same heat.

Golden girl: Christina Loh on her way to winning the 100m breaststroke at the Malaysian Open at the National Aquatic Centre Thursday. Inset: Christina with her gold medal. —M.AZHAR ARIF/The Star.

With their commendable timings Ian James, Christina Loh, Wong Jun Bin and Bonnie Tan representing the KL Team would qualify themselves into the SEA Age Group Swimming Championship to be held in Palembang, Indonesia in June 2012.

Overall the whole KL Team did excellently well by collecting 27 golds, 27 silver and 21 bronze thanks to the medallists below :

Steve Kiew (Boys 10 & Under)
200m IM (Gold, 2:47.50)
200m freestyle (Gold, 2:26.83)
100m backstroke (Gold, 1:16.55)
100m freestyle (Silver, 1:08.37)
50m backstroke (Silver, 37.45)

Sebastian Soon (Boys 10 & Under)
100m butterfly (Gold, 1:17.43)
100m freestyle (Bronze, 1:08.81)
200m IM (Bronze, 2:50.91)
50m butterfly (Bronze, 34.04)
200m freestyle (Bronze, 2:30.45)

Iqmal Muqhis (Boys 10 & Under)
50m breaststroke (Silver, 41.49)

Anjali Lim (Girls 10 & Under)
100m butterfly (Bronze, 1:20.15)
50m butterfly (Bronze, 35.45)

Pun Pei Jin (Girls 10 & Under)
100m butterfly (Silver, 1:18.93)
200m IM (Bronze, 2:55.75)

Karla Lim (Girls 10 & Under)
100m backstroke (Silver, 1:21.05)

Wong Jun Bin (Boys 11-12)
1500m freestyle (Gold, 17:42.00R)*
100m freestyle (Gold, 58.43)
400m freestyle (Gold, 4:32.97)
400m IM (Gold, 5:15.48)
200m freestyle (Gold, 2:07.54)
200m butterfly (Gold, 2:21.26)
50m freestyle (Gold, 27.27)
100m butterfly (Silver, 1:04.17)
50m butterfly (Silver, 29.30)

Goh Yue Hong (Boys 11-12)
200m IM (Gold, 2:25.70)
100m butterfly (Gold, 1:03.67)
100m backstroke (Gold, 1:07.80)
50m butterfly (Gold, 28.82)
50m backstroke (Gold, 31.26)
100m freestyle (Silver, 58.61)
200m backstroke (Silver, 2:31.74)
400m IM (Silver, 5:21.27)
200m butterfly (Silver, 2:22.40)

Tan Rou Ying (Girls 11-12)
800m freestyle (Silver, 9:48.13R)*
100m freestyle (Silver, 1:00.60)
200m backstroke (Silver, 2:35.35)
400m freestyle (Silver, 4:45.08)
400m IM (Silver, 5:20.66)
50m butterfly (Silver, 30.71)
200m freestyle (Silver, 2:14.83)
50m freestyle (Silver, 28.59)
200m IM (Bronze, 2:31.89)
100m butterfly (Bronze, 1:08.88)
100m backstroke (Bronze, 1:10.95)
50m backstroke (Bronze, 32.85)
200m butterfly (Bronze, 2:34.17)

Zoe Bowden (Girls 11-12)
200m backstroke (Bronze, 2:40.83)

Nur Hanisah (Girls 13-14)
800m freestyle (Bronze, 9:50.27)

Nicholas Soon (Boys 13-14)
200m breaststroke (Bronze, 2:31.36)

Ian James Barr (Boys 15-17)
200m breaststroke (Gold, 2:23.85R)*
200m IM (Gold, 2:08.91R)*
200m backstroke (Gold, 2:10.60)
100m backstroke (Gold, 58.71)
400m IM (Gold, 4:42.11R)*
50m backstroke (Gold, 27.24R)*
100m breaststroke (Gold, 1:06.67R)*

Lee Tzong Lit (Boys 15-17)
50m butterfly (Gold, 26.25)

Tan Gin Yu (Boys 15-17)
200m butterfly (Silver, 2:08.34)

Christina Loh (Girls 15-17)
50m breaststroke (Gold, 32.56)
100m breaststroke (Gold, 1:12.48)
200m breaststroke (Silver, 2:38.94R)*
50m butterfly (Bronze, 29.67)

Mak Ai Sin (Girls 15-17)
200m breaststroke (Bronze, 2:46.77)

Andrew Loh (Boys 18 & Over)
50m backstroke (Gold, 28.33)
100m backstroke (Silver, 1:02.09)
50m butterfly (Silver, 26.43)
50m freestyle (Silver, 24.92)
50m breaststroke (Bronze, 31.04)
100m breaststroke (Bronze, 1:09.74)

* NAG record

The WP Relay Teams also grabbed some medals for the following relay events :

4x100m Freestyle Relay (Boys 11-12) - Silver
(Wong Jun Bin, Adam Afif, Muhd. Alif Afifi and Goh Yue Hong)

4x50m Freestyle Relay (Boys 10 & Under) - Silver
(Steve Kiew, Iqmas Muqhis, Sebastian Soon, Ng Kai Wen)

4x100m Medley Relay (Boys 11-12) - Silver
(Goh Yue Hong, Adam Afif, Wong Jun Bin, Muhd. Alif Afifi)

4x100m Medley Relay (Girls 11-12) - Bronze

(Zoe Bowden, Yap Li Wen, Chong Yong Qi, Tan Rou Ying)

4x100m Medley Relay (Boys 13-14) - Bronze
(Keith Lim, Nicholas Soon, Yeo Jin Jie, Tan El Siang)

Download Full Results of NAG 2012.

For last year 47th NAG 2011, you may refer to the following blog for further reports :
USPTN Wilayah Persekutuan - Day 1
USPTN Wilayah Persekutuan - Day 2 & 3

Also read related articles :

Christina tops 100m breaststroke in new meet record (The Star, 4 May 2012)
Edwin: All states aware of decision to invite foreign swimmers (The Star, 11 Apr 2012)
States unhappy with decision to invite foreign swimmers (The Star, 10 Apr 2012)
National Age-Group Championships: Competition gets attention for wrong reasons (The New Straits Times, 10 April 2012)