GEORGE TOWN: DEFENDING champions Royal Selangor Golf Club, participating under the Buaya Swimming Team banner, retained the overall title of the 10th Penang Speedo Masters Swimming Championships at the Chinese Swimming Club in Tanjung Bungah recently.
Buaya Swimming Team (BST) swimmers collected 961 points to pip arch rivals Chinese Swimming Club (CSC) who accumulated 832 points, while Indonesia Master Swimmers (413) settled for third spot.
The 10th Speedo Masters Swimming Championship was hosted by CSC Penang with more than 150 ardent veteran swimmers from 14 teams competing.
Among the swimmers were those from Ukraine, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia.
CSC spokesman Soh Yew Siang said, after 10 years, the championship would be hosted in Kuala Lumpur next year.
He said Penang was handing over the baton to Royal Selangor Golf Club for a change of environment.
The competition consisted of 11 age-group categories for men and women. Some 160 events were held at the CSC’s 50m x 30m salt water pool in Tanjong Bungah. This year’s championships saw 55 records being rewritten, compared with only 46 last year.
The main draw of the event was Ukrainian Nataliya Simak, who continued with her awesome record-breaking feat.
Swimming for Buaya Swimming Team, Nataliya took to the pool seven times and bettered three records en route to collecting seven gold, erasing her own records in all three events.
Competing in the 40-44 category, Nataliya, 43, won gold in the 200m individual medley, 100m freestyle, 100 breaststroke, 50m backstroke, 50m breaststroke, 50m butterfly, 50m freestyle, and anchored her team to two relay titles.
But, the darling of the day wasAnita Sapardjiman, 52, of the Indonesia Master Swimmers club who bettered seven of the records she set last year as she won seven gold.
BST’s Allen Ong, swimming in the 35-39 category, won seven gold, six of which were in record times, while Kelvin Loh (40-44), representing Aquatic Performance Swimming Club, set five records.