SINGAPORE, January 19. SWIMMING has long held the hearts and minds of Singaporeans as over the years. Swimming has produced local sporting legends that have taken on Asia and the world. This year, a series of swimming events for Masters swimmers will be rolled out to encourage greater interest in swimming as a life-long sport and at the forefront of this initiative is none other than local swimming legend, Ang Peng Siong.
Peng Siong, who held the title of world's fastest swimmer as the 50-meter freestyle world record holder in 1982, chairs the Masters swimming sub-committee for the Singapore Swimming Association. Masters swimming is poised to take off in the region.
The Standard Chartered Masters Swimming Series Asia Pacific Masters Swim Meet (Feb. 9-11) is the first event in the Masters Swimming Calendar for 2007. The event is being staged in the state-of-art swimming complex at the Singapore Sports School, and Masters Swimming enthusiasts from the Asia Pacific region have been invited to take part. Participants have already been confirmed from Taiwan, Thailand, Australia and North America.
The inaugural event staged in Singapore last October, the inaugural Singapore Invitational Masters Swim Festival, attracted more than 170 participants from 17 countries. The oldest competitor at the event was 76.
"SSA is keen to drive interest in Masters Swimming as a sport that people can do throughout their lives, at their own pace regardless of age," SSA Swimming Vice President Oon Jin Gee said. "We see an increasing trend of people who opt to swim to stay healthy because it is relatively less strenuous on aging joints and limbs. Masters Swimming is centered around self-motivation. It provides a platform for this growing community to congregate, stay in shape, and perhaps even set target times and distances to beat. And, for the young-at-heart who still have the competitive streak, SSA is planning a full calendar of Masters Swimming activities this year."