The SPH Foundation National Inclusive Swimming Championships saw 111 participants including athletes who would be competing at the upcoming Singapore 2019 World Para Swimming World Series. This will be the 38th iteration of the annual swimming championships organised by Singapore Disability Sports Council (SDSC).
Guest-of-Honour Ms Sim Ann, Senior Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth & Communications and Information attended the annual national para-swimming event for participants aged 7 years and above. Ms Sim said “I am happy to support the SPH Foundation National Inclusive Swimming Championships. By competing with confidence, the participants inspire us to face life’s challenges with optimism and perseverance. Some of the competitors here today will be representing our nation at next week’s Singapore 2019 World Para Swimming World Series. I wish them the very best!”
15 athletes at this event will be competing at the Singapore 2019 World Para Swimming World Series. The local competition was the final race before competing at the international event. This was in a bid to ramp up their performance, familiarize themselves with the competition pool and to take this competition as a test event before the big day.
The championship not only help SDSC build a pool of competent and ready athletes across all disability and age groups, helping SDSC identify talented persons with disabilities (PWDs) for regional and international competitions such as the upcoming 10th ASEAN Para Games in Philippines next year, but are also are opportunities for athletes to gain competitive exposure before challenging the regional and international arenas.
National Swimmer Wong Zhi Wei said, ”it is always good to swim at the competition arena. The pool really gives me a gauge for the World Para Swimming World Series and I didn’t taper my training and for today’s event I achieved my personal best in 400 Freestyle (4:54.56) and 50m Butterfly (30.16s).”
Yip Pin Xiu who made her debut in the 4x50m Freestyle 20 points relay today shared, “Swimming is a really individual sport and one of the ways teamwork is present is when we do relays. Though half of us do not train together, I think it was still really enjoyable participating in the relay.”
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