More than 40 new meet records were attained at the British International School, Phuket (BISP) Flying Fish Invitational swim meet over the weekend, where BISP finished in first place in the team competition with 2,300 points.
The event was officially opened on Friday afternoon (26 April) with a performance by the BISP Concert Band.
Following BISP on the points table after three days of intense competition were the ISB Dragons from Beijing who came runners-up with 1,754 points and Thanyapura from Phuket who finished third on 1,494. The event was BISP’s biggest swim meet to date, featuring more than 20 international schools from around Asia. An individual swimmer from Denmark also competed. Click here to see the Flickr album.
In addition to the 40 new meet records, the BISP Flying Fish team achieved five new school records, set by Nikolay, Victor and James.
Unlike most school swim meets in the region, the Flying Fish Invitational included heats and finals in many of the races, allowing swimmers to experience more competition over the course of the event.
In a first for the Flying Fish Invitational, the top 50m freestyle swimmers also took part in SKINS – an exhibition race which sees eight swimmers be eliminated to one overall champion after completing seven consecutive 50m freestyle sprints in a set time frame. The exciting event, which has become a regular feature of swim meets worldwide, showcased some great tactical swimming and was extremely popular with the crowd.
BISP Aquatics Director, Hayley Palmer, said the sportsmanship, enthusiasm and atmosphere over the weekend was fantastic to see.
“It’s always a pleasure to see different swim teams and cultures come together to enjoy the sport.
“To race heats and finals is a big undertaking and motivates swimmers to back up their performances. I was pleased to see that many swimmers swam faster times in the finals than the heats, and really pushed themselves to reach their targets. Many of our athletes also swam personal best times in every event they entered.
“Thank you to all those who volunteered their time to help run this event, to all the spectators who came along to support and cheer, and to all the swimmers who competed. We look forward to doing it all again next year.”
The Flying Fish Invitational in an annual event at BISP. For more information on the BISP Swim Programme, including scholarships, please email Hayley Palmer or email Colin Braund, Head Coach.
BISP podium finishers:
Nikolay – 3rd Overall 9-10YO Boys
Duana – 2nd Overall 11-12YO Girls
Lauchlan – 2nd Overall 11-12YO Boys
Aryan – 1st 15/O Boys
Wern Rui – 2nd 15/O Boys
Arijus – 3rd 15/O Boys
To view the official results, please click here.