Story by Zachary Foo/Red Sports. Photos by Laura Lee and Clara Yuan/Red Sports

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Darren Chua (ACS(I)) clocked a new meet record of 2:09.53 to finish first in the C Division Individual Medley. (Photo 1 © Laura Lee/Red Sports)

Singapore Sports School, Tuesday, April 22, 2014 — Darren Chua of Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) broke the meet record in the C Division Boys 200 metres individual medley with a time of 2 minutes 9.53 seconds at the 55th National Schools Swimming Championships.

He went under his old mark of 2 minutes 12.90 seconds, which he set in the preliminaries.

Maximillian Ang of Singapore Sports School came in second in a time of 2 minutes 18.38 seconds, while Erasmus Ang rounded up the podium with a time of 2 minutes 21.00 seconds.

Darren said, “I was planning to reach that time as I trained really hard for it. I think I could have done better today and I will look to improve further on it.”

Darren has shown stark improvement in this event over the last year. He won last year’s C Division title in 2:14.52, which fell just short of the then-national under-14 mark of 2:14.21 held by schoolmate Dylan Koo. Darren broke the mark two months ago at the Singapore Swimming Association time trials, clocking a time of 2:13.26. He then proceeded to lower it twice more at the Singapore National Age Group Championships in March with times of 2:13.15 and 2:10.83, just a day before he turned 14.

Darren’s latest time of 2:09.53 marked his first ever below 2:10. He has now shaved five seconds off his PB within a year.

C Division Boys 200m Individual Medley Results
1st Chua Yi Shou Darren [Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)] — 2:09.53
2nd Ang Wei Maximillian (Singapore Sports School) — 2:18.38
3rd Ang Zhong Qing Erasmus (Singapore Sports School) — 2:21.00
4th Chan Liam [Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)] — 2:22.49
5th Liew Zhi Zheng Alexis [Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)] — 2:31.91
6th Lim Shi Luo Leo [Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)] — 2:32.60
7th Chua Li Rong Luke (Singapore Sports School) — 2:32.88
8th Ong Sheng Hua Joshua [Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)] — 2:33.21

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