Fish fly high at BIS
PHUKET: Lightning storms may have interrupted the second day of competition, but it didn’t stop the records tumbling as the British International School Flying Fish swim team dominated their home event.
Dane Halpin
Thursday 17 May 2012, 10:09AM
Held over the weekend (May 5-6), the Flying Fish Invitational attracted 330 swimmers from schools across the Asia Pacific region.
One of BIS’s top swimmers, Andy Heinz, relished the international competition.
“It’s fun because we get to meet new people and show off our skills,” he said.
And Andy apparently has some pretty impressive skills to show off. The 15-year-old is a member of the Thai National youth swim team, and will be representing Phuket at the upcoming National Youth Games later this month.
But he wasn’t too happy with his performance on Saturday, despite winning the 50m butterfly and earning a podium finish in the individual medley.
“I know I could do a lot better. I just got back from a school trip, so my preparation wasn’t ideal.”
The young swimmer said his success in his sport had helped justify the hard work he had put into it, adding that his “dream” would now be to compete at the Olympic Games.
Fellow teammate Sam Gartner, 15, was more pragmatic in his ambitions. “I want to be a golfer,” he said.
“I wanted to be a swimmer, but then I found out you can make a lot more money as a golfer.”
But whatever their goals or respective talents, the swim meet gave the kids a chance to compete against international competition, something that Helen Sweeney, head coach of the Flying Fish swim team, believes is invaluable.
“It gives them more motivation in training, as well as some tough competition.”
She said the numbers in the BIS team had increased 17 per cent this year, reflecting the success of the school’s swimming programme.
Other notable performances from the weekend event included Syakirah Frost, who broke the girls 11-12 100m backstroke record in a time of 1:18.96. She also broke the 50m backstroke record in 36.30, though this record was broken just one heat later by Hannah Murphy.
The Flying Fish also had some outstanding swimmers in the 13-14 boys age group, setting a number of new records.
Raymond Windsor was first in the 50m backstroke and 100m breaststroke, while Marcus Goetz was first in the 50m freestyle, setting the new record for the boys 13-14 at 26.99.
The Flying Fish also broke the boys 13-14 freestyle relay record by just 0.03 second with a the team of Andy Heinz, Sam Gartner, Tree Jeamsinkul, and Ray Windsor.
Rainer Oeijord and Isabella Cook were also awarded high point trophies in the six-and-under division, enabling the Flying Fish team to take out the Overall Team Points Trophy.
