Hong Kong's reigning schools swimming champions, Diocesan Girls' School (DGS) and Diocesan Boys' School (DBS), both retained their overall titles at the inter-school competition held at Kowloon Park Swimming Pool last week.
DGS clinched their 24th consecutive overall title with a total of 580 points. Heep Yunn School were second, with 458 points, and Good Hope School third on 243.
DBS won their 19th consecutive overall boys' crown with a total of 537points; St Joseph's College were second with 481.5 and La Salle College third with 335.
Many of the two schools' leading swimmers, including backstroke record-holder Claudia Lau, and freestyle record-holders Jeff Lum Ching-tat and Henry Chung Lai-yeung, have left to study abroad. But their absence - while certainly noticed in the pool - did nothing to dampen the competitiveness and passion of the remaining swimmers and their supporters.
Heep Yunn, last year's girls' Grade A champions, just failed to retain their title. DGS won with 194 points, with Heep Yunn second on 172 and Good Hope third on 62. DGS captain Teresa Chung Yan-ting faced a fierce challenge from Heep Yunn's former captain, Chan Kin-lok, in the 50m freestyle. Kin-lok has won six successive 50m butterfly gold medals at the championships. But Teresa, a Form Six student, won the battle in the end, claiming victory over Lin-lok by 0.03 seconds.
'This is my first time swimming in the inter-school championships without my elder brother, Henry,' said Teresa, who won two more gold medals in the 100m freestyle and 4x50m medley relay, and will graduate next year. 'But he was watching the live webcast from the United States and made a long-distance call to support me after watching my 50m freestyle race.'