Student swimmers competing in last Friday’s All Elementary Schools Swimming Championships broke twelve records out of the twenty events hosted at the annual Championships Meet.
The meet, which took place at the Palau National Swimming Pool in Meyuns from 10am to 4pm, brought together 140 students from nine schools, including Koror, Meyuns, Seventh Day Adventist (SDA), Maris Stella, Ngardmau, Aimeliik, Airai, Ngarchelong, and Ngaraard Elementary Schools. The Championships Meet, which has been held for five consecutive years, has only ever hosted up to six schools in prior years.
The meet included a mixture of boys’ and girls’ freestyle and stroke races and medley relays.
Koror Elementary School won the overall championship with 1,130 points, with Meyuns Elementary coming in second place with 881 points, and SDA coming in third with 756 points.
Maris Stella won the year’s Small Team Division.
Records which were broken include Boys’ 25-meter Freestyle, with Travis Sakurai from Koror finishing in 12.81 seconds, beating the old record of 12.95 seconds. Travis Sakurai also broke the record for Boys’ 25-meter Butterfly Stroke, finishing in 15.15 seconds, breaking the old record of 15.86 seconds. He also broke records for the Boys’ 50-meter Freestyle, finishing in 27.68 seconds, Boys’ 50-meter Breaststroke, finishing in 36.59 seconds, and Boys’ 100-meter Freestyle, finishing in 1 minute and 8 seconds.
Other broken records include Boys’ 50-meter Backstroke, with Kazuumi Nestor from Koror finishing in 33.26 seconds. Kazuumi Nestor also set the record for Boys’ 50-meter Butterfly Stroke, an event which was started this year, finishing in 32.21 seconds.
Ungilreng Ruluked from Meyuns broke the record for Girls’ 50-meter Freestyle, finishing in 34.33 seconds, breaking her own record of 35.59 seconds from last year. Ungilreng Ruluked also broke the record for Girls’ 50-meter Backstroke, finishing in 39.52 seconds, Girls’ 50-meter Breaststroke, finishing in 43.85 seconds, and set the record for Girls’ 50-meter Butterfly Stroke, an event which started this year, finishing in 32.21 seconds.
Koror Elementary broke its own record for the Mixed 100-meter Medley Relay, finishing in 1 minute and 10 seconds, 3 seconds faster than last year.
Many of the students have been training year-round under Head Coach Billy Brown from the Palau Swimming Association.
The event was organized by the Ministry of Education (MOE) along with the Palau Swimming Association, with the help of principals and teachers from the participating schools.