Just two weeks after the finish of China Cup Swimming, the Puxi Campus Aquatics Center was bustling again with young athletes ready to give it their best shot for APAC glory. Swimmers from Seoul Foreign School, International School Beijing, Western Academy of Beijing, Hong Kong International School, Brent International School Manila, Shanghai American School Pudong and Shanghai American School Puxi gathered to compete in the annual APAC Championships.

In the end when the waves settled and the pool was calm, it was ISB that repeated their amazing China Cup performance and cruised to wins in both the boys and girls categories. Showing that they were not only great athletes but also great sportsmen, ISB was awarded the sportsmanship award by their peers.

From the start of the meet it was clear that the depth and skill of the ISB team would allow them to win the gold by a relatively large margin in both the girls and the boys.  Then traditionally HKIS would capture the silver unattested, and in the girls division they did. But after losing by only 30 points in the recent China Cup Championships, the SAS Puxi boys were looking to break with tradition.

After day one the HKIS boys were ahead by a solid 18 points over the hometown boys. With day two in the books, the boys were only four points behind and just starting to hit their stride. On day three, Raymond Song and Andrew McClintock captured two timely gold medals that pushed the Eagles 3 points ahead for the first time in the meet. This meant that the boy’s 1st runner-up trophy would come down to the final relay of the day. 

On the back of an incredible 4×100 relay swim (by G Ping Lee, Raymond Song, Chase Preston and Andrew McClintock) the Puxi campus boys increased the points margin to six points and earned the schools first ever APAC banner (1st runner up).

The Pudong campus boys also came out on the winning side of a battle with the SFS for 4th place. This also came down to the last relay event of the day. Johnny Tan, Leonard Wang, Brody McConell and Justin Wang easily outdistanced the SFC boys to expand their lead to 6 points and the 4th place title.

On the girl’s side, SAS Pudong found themselves all alone in 3rd place 23 points ahead of Brent International School. Brent narrowly beat out the SAS Puxi girls who, despite a valiant effort in their last relay could not catch the girls from Brent.

Individually, Lydia Oldham and Amy Parsons earned 5th and 6th place overall for the girls. While G Ping Lee and Raymond Song took 4th and 5th respectively.  G Ping also earned the first ever Shanghai American School APAC record after he broke the boy’s 100meter Individual Medley time of 1:01.96.

Boys: Silver Medal
Girls: 5th place

Over all medals (Puxi): 36 (3 gold, 17 silver, 7 bronze and 9 4-6th place)

Individual medals
G Ping Lee: 1 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze
Raymond Song: 1 gold, 3 silver and 1 5th
Chewy Tang: 1 silver, 1 bronze and 3 5th
Andrew McClintock: 1 gold, 3 silver
Chase Preston: 3 silver
Chris Chen: 1 silver, 1 4th and 1 5th
Fabien Ma: 1 silver
Xiang Yi Lau: 1 6th
Grant Melvin: 1 6th
Meg Peake: 1 silver
Leah Jarrett: 1 bronze
Yipsum Wu: 1 bronze
Christie Tang: 1 silver
Caroline Norgreen: 1 bronze
Casie Mei: 1 silver and 1 bronze

Pudong: 19 (1 gold, 4 silver, 12 bronze, 9 4-6th places)

Benedict Wong 3 bronze, 4th
Lydia Oldham 1 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze, 4th
Amy Parsons 2 silver, 2 bronze, 4th
Erika Lu 1 silver, 2 -5ths
Sean Feng 2 Bronze, 4th
Justin Wang 1 bronze
Graham Thompson 2 bronze
Brody McConnell 4th
Johnny Tan 5th
Bennett Alexander 6th
Jessica Hao 1 silver
Alvin Wang 1 bronze

By Corry DAY, Swim Coach, Puxi Campus