From the Head of PE & Sport, 19.01.19

FOBISIA Swimming Championships 2019
Last Thursday the 10th January, nine Stingrays swimmers set off to represent KIS at the 2019 FOBISIA Swimming Championships in Bangkok, Thailand. After a convenient direct flight to Bangkok and a short bus drive from the airport we arrived at our hotel, where the team enjoyed a nice dinner before heading to bed for the night.On Friday morning, the team were able to enjoy a long breakfast at the hotel buffet, followed by some relaxing free time in the pool before the serious swimming began. In the afternoon it was time to travel to the brand new Secondary campus of Bangkok Prep, for the first day of the competition. The first session of the competition included mostly long distance races, which saw Nicholas racing in the 400m freestyle and 200m breaststroke races, with the rest of the squad cheering him on. This was the first time Nicholas swam these distances in a competition and his effort and performances set a great example for the rest of the team, especially taking into consideration that there was little time to rest between the two events.Saturday morning was an early start for all as we traveled to the school for a warm-up at 6:40am! Luckily, Thailand is one hour behind Malaysia, which made it a little bit easier to get our eyes open before sunrise! The Saturday morning session included 200m freestyle, 50m butterfly and 100m backstroke events. Stingrays showed they were ready for the competition with Juah and Amanda improving their Personal Best (PB) times in 200m freestyle and Tony in 50m butterfly. In the afternoon, our Stingrays continued to show their ability to do their best by improving their PBs in 100m freestyle (Nicholas and Bella), 50m breaststroke (Hope and Amanda) and 100m butterfly (Bella and Juah). The girls finished off a long day of competition taking part in the 4x50m Medley Relay.There was no lazy Sunday lie in for the Stingrays. Alarms sounded at 4:30am and they were jumping into the pool for warm-up again at 6:40am. On the third day of the competition, the KIS Stingrays put on yet more excellent performances with PBs beaten in 200m Individual Medley (Bella), 50m freestyle (Hope and Amanda), 100m breaststroke (Amanda and Hope) and 50m backstroke (Brandon, Hope and Amanda). A wonderful competition was finished off with the girls great performance in the 4x50m Freestyle Relay.A special mention goes to Sophie and Emmanuel who improved their PB times in every event they swam! Sophie improved her PB in 50m breaststroke by 12 seconds and Emmanuel in both 100m backstroke and 100m breaststroke by 24 seconds! This is the most exquisite element of swimming; even though you don’t always beat the other competitors and win medals, you can still beat your own records and be proud of your achievements!Mr Richie and I would like to say a big thank you and well done to all the Stingrays swimmers; Nicholas, Brandon, Tony, Emmanuel, Bella, Juah, Hope, Amanda and Sophie. A huge thank you also to all the Stingrays parents for their continuous support, and a special thank you to Nicole, Thor, Regina and Matthew for cheering by the pool and supporting us throughout the whole trip to the 2019 FOBISIA Swimming Championships!Ms Tytti Beltran
Head of Aquatics

SAG Swimming Championships
While KIS Stingrays were making a splash in Bangkok, many other KIS students were also enjoying a wet and wild weekend of swimming competing at the Sabah Age Group Swimming championships held at Likas Pool from Friday 11th-Sunday 13th January. Students were representing their local swim clubs at the competition and were vying not only for personal bests and medals, but also selection to represent Sabah at the Malaysian National Swim Championships.

Whilst many students achieved personal bests and top 10 places in very competitive events, two of our more senior swimmers achieved notable successes at the championship. Freya (9K) took home 2 silver medals in the 100m and 200m Backstroke as well as being part of two gold medal winning relay teams in the 4 x 50m Medlay and 4 x 50m Freestyle relay. Destinee (8K) had a very busy weekend of races but was rewarded for her efforts in training and preparation with wonderful results. Some of her medals included silver in the 200m fly, 100m backstroke, 100m breaststroke, 50m breaststroke and 200m IM; and they were just the ones she could remember!

A heart felt congratulations to all the KIS swimmers who took part in the competition and best of luck to those who will now continue training for the next level attending the 2019 MIAG Meet in March.

MSSD Update
Last week I published dates of competitions for those events coming up in the next few weeks. Entries for Badminton, U12 and U18 Basketball have now closed.

The events below are in the calendar but as yet we are still awaiting confirmation of dates.

Event	Who	Date
Golf	Boys and Girls Age Category = All	TBC
Tennis	Boys and Girls Age Category = All	TBC
Table Tennis	Boys and Girls Age Category = All	TBC

If you would like your child to take part in any of the events listed below please collect the necessary paperwork from Ms Sharon Wong in the office and return them completed with a copy of either your childs’ IC card or passport ID page.

Ms Catriona Watt
Head of PE and Sport