Silver lining in overcast Meet for DSA swimmers
Inclement weather played spoilsport at the 35th National Inter-Club Swimming Championship for The President Cup held in the last weekend of November this year. Over the 3 days, 25th to 27th, there were intermittent bouts of rain, and the weather remained dull and gloomy and this created some concerns for the swimmers of DSA Swim Team.
This year, the team of over 90 swimmers had a fair sprinkling g of newcomers and this was a big Meet for most of them. Unfortunately, many of them had to pull out of their events due to the adverse conditions on the first day affecting the overall performance of the team. The team put in their best efforts in the remaining days to retain the third position overall with a total of 387.50 points.
It was heart warming to see Welson Sim, Malaysian Olympic swimmer, who recently had become the first Malaysian Swimmer to have qualified for the Rio Olympics, voluntarily represent DSA Swim Team in this President Cup in order to encourage, guide and share some of his experiences with his young DSA swimmers. The excitement was visible as the young swimmers listened attentively to Welson and were enthralled that he was able to spend time with them.
The medal winners included young Yap Yong Jie in the Group 4 Boys, who despite being disadvantaged won 2 Silver and 3 Bronze and is promising to be a sound champion for the future. Yumi and Misa Okuzono made the most of the events they participated in the last 2 days. Misa brought home 2 Gold, 2 Silver and 1 Bronze while Yumi won 1 Gold and 2 Bronze in her events. Welson Sim won a solitary Gold in the Open Boys Group for 100m Freestyle clocking in 51.17 with a new meet record. Among other swimmers, Georgene Wee bagged a Silver and Bronze in her events and Darrren Lew also won a Bronze in 100m Free in Group 3 Boys. The big takeaway from the Meet however, was the remarkable improvement in the Personal Best’s (PBs) of a majority of the swimmers. Almost every other swimmer has improved on their timings and that in itself is quite impressive, though the medals count may have dipped from the previous year.
A detailed list of the medal winners are as
| NAME | AGE GROUP | EVENT | MEDAL |
| YAP YONG JIE | GROUP 4 BOYS | 50M BUTTERFLY | BRONZE |
| “ | 50M BACKSTROKE | SILVER | |
| “ | 100M BUTTERFLY | BRONZE | |
| “ | 100M FREESTYLE | BRONZE | |
| “ | 100M BACKSTROKE | SILVER | |
| GEORGENE WEE EE JERN | GROUP 3 GIRLS | 100M BREASTSTROKE | SILVER |
| “ | 50M BREASTSTROKE | BRONZE | |
| MISA OKUZONO | GROUP 4 GIRLS | 100M BUTTERFLY | GOLD |
| “ | 50M BREASTSTROKE | SILVER | |
| “ | 100M FREESTYLE | SILVER | |
| “ | 100M BACKSTROKE | GOLD | |
| “ | 50M FREESTYLE | BRONZE | |
| YUMI OKUZONO | GROUP 3 GIRLS | 100M BUTTERFLY | GOLD |
| “ | 100M BACKSTROKE | BRONZE | |
| “ | 50M FREESTYLE | BRONZE | |
| DARREN LEW CHEN JET | GROUP 3 BOYS | 100M FREESTLE | BRONZE |
| WELSON SIM WEE SHENG | OPEN BOYS | 100M FREESTYLE | GOLD |
