Ready, Set, Go in Singapore

By Amy Wu

Singapore is playing host to the initial Asia-Pacific Masters Swim meet later this week.

As many as 300 Masters swimmers from 17 countries in the region are expected to compete at the Singapore Sports School's aquatics facility from Feb. 9-11. The state-of-the-art center includes two Olympic-sized pools with 10 lanes each. The meet will include all of the standard swimming events, including distance events such as the 1,500 meter.

The event will include as many as 40 officials, bolstered by some 30 volunteers. The meet, is part of The Standard Chartered Masters Swimming Series being rolled out throughout this year. The series of meets is organized by GENER8 Sports, a Singapore-based sports events company run by David Lim, its co-founder and chief operating officer in conjunction with the Singapore Swimming Association and Ang Peng Siong, a local swimming legend in Singapore.

The brainchild behind the swimming series is Ang, who set the world record in the 50m free in 1982. He is also a two-time World Masters Champion in the 50 free (in the 40-44 age group). The planning for the series started about a year ago, after the avid Masters swimmer was frustrated with the dearth of Masters competitions in the Asia Pacific region.

"There wasn't a Masters swim meet at all in Singapore. For meets I had to go overseas," said Ang, who traveled overseas to attend the World Masters Championships for both 2000 and 2002.

A year ago, he began to tackle the idea with Jeffrey Leow, the new president of the Singapore Swimming Association, and Lim, a seasoned sports marketer. Leow himself is a former college competitive swimmer who swam at UCLA.

The series' inaugural event, the Singapore Invitational Masters Swim Festival, was held in October, and attracted more than 170 participants from 17 countries. The February meet is only one of four meets, which will be held throughout this year. Lim, Leow and Ang have been busy promoting the sport, which is a challenge in a country and region where swimming is in its early stages of being recognized.

For the upcoming meet, they reached out to Masters coaches and clubs across the Asia Pacific region. They launched a marketing program for the meet and swim series, including advertisements in newspapers and radio stations. One of the biggest challenges, however, is breaking down misconceptions that meets are all about cut throat competition.

"One of the biggest hurdles was changing the mindset of the participants," Ang said. "We had to really educate the participants that this is not high-level competitive swimming, in the sense that it's also meant for swimmers who just want to have a healthy lifestyle."

"It's about meeting personal levels of achievement. This is something that is fun and for everyone," Lim said.

Based on the inaugural meet, the organizers expect a lot of participants will be expatriates, swimming enthusiasts, and at least 50 percent of the competitors to come from Singapore.

The organizers hope that in launching the series and in pulling in more corporate sponsors, the sport will gain more attention in Singapore, especially in a year before the Olympics in Beijing.

"I think we do expect the next 12 to 18 months a lot of attention and interest in swimming in Singapore," Lim said.

The next meet for The Standard Chartered Masters Swimming Series is scheduled for the end of June. In August, there will be another meet, where the organizers will reach out to Masters swim clubs around the world. A third meet will be when Singapore hosts one leg of the FINA Swimming World Cup in October 2007.

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