The swimmers truly broke new ground this year in Singapore: the girls set two records and placed fifth and the boys broke one record and proudly wore the gold medals home.

In the midst of all of the medals won by athletes in those sports that involved a ball, one group of sporting experts quietly did their business in their trip to Singapore.  These were the swimmers, who had dreamed of taking gold medals at the annual IASAS meet, came into the tournament as apparent underdogs, as you do not see the swimmers of Taipei take home the gold medals every single year. For the past few years, swimming has been one of TAS’  strengths, but there has been a very long drought in the quest for the gold medal, but this year, that story has been changed.

The girls pulled out a very respectable fifth place, and that included one swimmer setting two brand new IASAS all-time record. That was Tove Bjork (9) breaking the 100 meter breast record, setting a very impressive time of 1:16.31. Tove also broke another record in the breaststroke competitions, but this time in the race of a longer distance, the 200 meter breast. She put up a time of 2:45.32.

Meanwhile, the boys came into Singapore as the apparent underdogs, but completed the swim meet as truly remarkable kings of the hill. Nearly every event saw the TAS Tigersharks in a very high ranking. John Lee (12) torched his opponents by being the only one in the pool of sixteen swimmers participating in the 100 meter butterfly to break 1 minute, capturing a solid 58.31 seconds and placing first. “It was an amazing experience; my goal was to break one minute as I have done it before in previous swim meets, but earning first on the way is like a dream,” he said. That was not the only impressive performance from John, as he, along with William Cheng (10), Alex Li (12), and Viktor Bjork (12) set a new IASAS record in the 400 meter medley relay. The time they recorded was 4:03.86.

The later swimmer, Viktor Bjork, also placed first in the 200 meter individual medley, taking 2:13.20, as well as the 400 meter race of the same kind, posting 4:42.71. Not only did he place first in these medley races, but he also won first place in the 400m freestyle. This was an impressive victory, as Viktor was trailing behind two swimmers but caught up to them and finished with an impressive 4:14:15.

This is the year that TAS has overturned their dry spell from taking the gold medals, and the future is bright for these young stars in the search for a repeat.

by Frank L.