SINGAPORE – Methodist Girls’ School’s (MGS) Megan Yo blazed the pool at OCBC Aquatics Centre on April 26, not only breaking the C Division 100m butterfly record for the second time in three days, but also surpassing even the B Division mark.
On April 24, she had clocked 1min 2.34sec in the heats, breaking Nicholle Toh’s meet mark of 1:02.87 set in 2015.
Megan, who swam in the second event of the day on April 26, finished in 1:02.02, breaking her own record, ahead of Birdie Gan (1:06.80) from Raffles Girls’ School, and teammate Rhea Ong (1:09.90).
With her latest mark, the diminutive 14-year-old proved she was faster than the girls aged up till 17, with the B Division 100m fly record standing at 1:02.28.
Megan, who was elated with her performance, said: “I enjoyed the race a lot and I managed to carry out the race how I’d visualised it. What’s important is that you focus on the process and not the end result, so I’m just gonna keep working to be faster.”
When told that she swam faster than the age group above her, Megan was pleasantly surprised, saying: “This shows that with hard work, nothing’s impossible. It doesn’t mean that if you’re younger, you can’t achieve something greater.”
National Training Centre assistant coach Alexander Mordvincev believes Megan has improved a lot since joining the centre in October 2023, describing her as one of the most dedicated swimmers that he has met.
He said: “Since the first day she joined, she has shown extremely great potential and I have to say, she’s probably one of the hardest-working swimmers in the pool and one of the most dedicated that I’ve met in my entire career.
“I believe she’s talented enough to go and tackle meet records and the goal is to break the meet records – not just at the National School Games but also at the Singapore nationals.”
Another record that was lowered on April 26 was the C Division boys’ 50m breaststroke.
Hwa Chong International School’s Tang Yichen clocked 30.24sec to better 2019 SEA Games gold medallist Lionel Khoo’s 15-year-old meet mark of 30.27sec.
In the A Division boys’ 100m fly, Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)’s Franklin Fong, who qualified third in the heats behind Raffles Institution’s (RI) Lachlan Goh and Rahul Shah, managed to edge out the pair in a photo finish in the final, clocking 57.88sec, ahead of Lachlan (57.91) and Rahul (57.95).
Franklin, the youngest brother of former SEA Games silver medallist Francis Fong, said there was pressure coming into the race behind the RI pair.
He said: “When I was swimming it, I was definitely very concerned, because based on the heats times, Rahul and Lachlan were faster than me and going into the race, I knew that ACS (I) were slightly behind (in points).
“So I had to do everything that I could to catch up and secure the gold for the school.”
Despite Franklin’s best efforts, it was RI who clinched the A Division boys’ title with 221 points, three more than ACS (I), after coming from 24 points behind to break a 12-year streak of ACS (I) wins.
Said RI captain Jerome Thio: “It was a really remarkable performance from everyone in the team, and we were keeping track of the scores the entire time. It means everything to us.”
In all other categories, the defending champions retained their titles.
ACS (I) continued their reign in the boys’ C and B Divisions, while RI kept the A Division girls’ crown and MGS retained their C and B Division girls’ titles.
