It was an absolutely incredible night for British International School, Phuket (BISP) in the pool on Sunday 7 June at the 28th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, currently underway in Singapore. In one evening, the school’s student-athletes – representing Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand – brought home one gold, one silver and one bronze medal, in intense competition against the finest swimmers in the whole of Southeast Asia.
Year 11 student Fukang Wong stole the show with a blistering second 50m of the 100m Breaststroke to move from third to first in the final 25m of the race to take gold for Team Malaysia in 1 min 02.46.
Next up was Year 11 student Phiangkhwan “Eing” Pawapotako, racing in the 200m Individual Medley for Team Thailand. Eing swam a very tactical race and pulled into a clear second position by the final turn, but needed to fight the final length to hold off the fast finishing Singaporean, taking second place in a 2 min 18.56.
Earlier on in the evening, BISP graduating student Roxanne Yu, representing Team Philippines, fought a tough and strategic battle in the 200m Backstroke, swimming a new personal best of 2min 18.45 and racing to a bronze medal position after turning fifth at the 100m mark.
Also in the 200m back final was Year 12 student Chantal Liew, representing Team Singapore, who posted a 2min 23.96 finishing in eighth position.
BISP JSA Swim Academy Head Coach Simon Jones, who is also Head Coach for Team Thailand at the SEA Games, said, “What a night team; each and every one of you made me, [Assistant] Coach Chris Gaffney, and your teammates back home in Phuket very proud. Congratulations and the best of luck to those still to race.”
The day before, on Saturday 6 June, Eing claimed BISP’s first medal of the SEA Games, the silver medal in the 400m Individual Medley behind Olympic superstar Vien Thi Anh from Vietnam. Eing raced to a new personal best, another Olympic qualifying standard in the medley events and a World Championship qualifying time for Kazan, Russia this summer.
Both Eing and Fukang now have three Olympic and World Championship qualifying times between them. In addition, Fukang has also been selected for the Malaysian team at the Commonwealth Youth Games, which take place in Samoa this September.
On Tuesday (9 June) evening, Roxanne blasted her way to bronze in the Women’s 100m Backstroke final with yet another personal best time.
The 18 year-old BISP student, who is heading to the University of Miami in the summer, and is representing Team Philippines at the SEA Games, showed her trademark finishing speed, dropping below 1min 05 for the first time, finishing in 1min 04.80 behind Olympic finalist Tao Li of Singapore and Kania Ratih of Indonesia. BISP Head Coach Simon Jones said, “Congratulations Roxanne, we are very proud of your achievements.”
With one gold, two silvers, and two bronzes so far at the 28th SEA Games 2015, BISP’s swimmers have more medals than Laos, Brunei and Timor Leste. To put it another way, if BISP were a country, they would be ninth out of 12 in the overall medal standings.
Follow BISP’s progress at the SEA Games on the team’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/swimphuket. For more information about the BISP JSA Swim Academy, visit www.bisphuket.ac.th/bisp-jsa-swim-academy or contact Head Coach Simon Jones at: aquatics@bisphuket.ac.th
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