By Andrew Nicholls, Head of Aquatics, East Campus
24 January 2022
It has been a busy start to the year for Dragons swimming. During the month of January 2022, our East Dragons competed and excelled at various swim meets.
UWCSEA East swimmers warming up at Toa Payoh pool
Over the weekend of Saturday, 15 and Sunday, 16 January, 14 team members took part in the first long course racing opportunity of the year at Toa Payoh pool. All 14 swimmers recorded at least one personal best time with an overall PB rate of 75%. This bodes well for our SEASAC championship which is rapidly approaching.
On Saturday, 22 and Sunday, 23 January, nine Dragons competed at the OCBC Swim Series event. The highlight was Ansel Song breaking school records in the 14 year boys 50 and 100 Breaststroke. He broke both of these in the same race taking the 50m record from Oliver Birch (December 2021) and breaking his own record in the 100 from 2020. There were also strong swims from Allie Harger and Kento Terao in the 100m backstroke.
“I am happy but I am looking forward to going faster. I am looking forward to SEASAC and SNAGS so I can have fun with my team and racing against other schools”
– Ansel Song
Coach Andrew Nicholls was impressed by Ansel’s technique which has been undergoing some fine tuning “It is difficult to make stroke changes and apply them in racing environments. Ansel’s swim showed he can implement changes from the training pool to his races.”
Looking ahead to the next few months, the focus of the Dragons team turns towards SEASAC championships from Friday–Sunday, 4–6 March and the Singapore National Age groups at the end of March. Junior Dragons have competitions approaching as well throughout February and March.
The UWCSEA East Dragons Swim Team for the 2022 SEASAC Championship will be held Short Course at UWCSEA Dover on Saturday, 26 and Sunday, 27 February. The meet will have hubs here in Singapore and also in Thailand. The team is limited to 10 Boys and 10 Girls who are above 13 years old on 26 February.
Boys Team: Coach Andrew, Coach Jake and Coach Wei Xin
Girls Team: Coach Andrew, Coach Jake and Coach Wei Xin
