Singapore Sports School, Wednesday, April 25, 2012 — It certainly helps to have a role model, especially one that had previously paved a way to success.

That was one of the driving forces behind the success of Hoong En Qi at the National Schools’ Swimming Championships. The Singapore Sports School Secondary One student lowered the C Division Girls’ 50 metres butterfly record of 29.07 seconds, set by Nur Marina Chan of Methodist Girls’ School in 2011, with a time of 29.04 seconds.

In addition, her time bettered Shana Lim’s National Under-14 record of 29.05 by one hundredth of a second.

“My role model is Tao Li and I especially admire how she was focused on her goals and went about achieving them,” the 12-year-old girl said without hesitation when queried.

Yet her success was not without hard work as well. Swimming from a tender age of five years, she now trains twice daily three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at the Singapore Sports School under the watchful eyes of her coaches.

“My coach also played a great role in my development as a swimmer,” she said, pointing to Sports School’s coach Barry Prime, adding that she hopes to represent her country in the Olympics one day.

En Qi subsequently went on to add the C Division Girls’ 50m freestyle gold to her tally as well with a fast time of 27.58 seconds. To put her win in perspective, her time would have won her the gold medal in the A and B Division events as well, which bodes well for a girl who has only just entered secondary school!

C Girls 50m freestyle results
1. Hoong En Qi, Singapore Sports School 27.58
2. Mark Wei’En Celine, Nanyang Girls’ High School 27.70
3. Soh Reh Tze Rachel, Raffles Girls’ School 28.34
4. Lee Ern Andrea, Methodist Girls’ School 29.72
5. Kon Su-Ann Nicole, Singapore Sports School 29.93
6. Ong Tze Ching Andrea, Raffles Girls’ School 30.43
7. Yap Wai Ting, Outram Secondary School 30.84
8. Yan Yingyun Chloe, Nanyang Girls’ High School 31.54

C Girls 50m butterfly results
1. Hoong En Qi, Singapore Sports School 29.04*
2. Toh Yi Rui Alethea, Methodist Girls’ School 29.43
3. Teo Ee Lynn, Raffles Girls’ School 31.38
4. Campos, Sophia Wenying, CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’ School 31.69
5. Ackerman, Hadley Chang, ACS (International) 32.22
6. Leong Shu Ling Dana, Methodist Girls’ School 32.62
7. Lua Jia Ning Emily, Raffles Girls’ School 32.86
8. Hor Wai Yin Dilys, Nanyang Girls’ High School 32.87