Male	Female	Mixed
Freestyle 6th Breaststroke 6th Overall 6th	Freestyle 2nd Breaststroke 3rd Overall 3rd	Medley 4th Novelty 4th

The KE7 girls’ swimming team surprised all the other halls by coming out 3rd overall at the Singapore Sports School at Woodlands.

At the supporter’s stand, there was a wide blob of orange, medium-sized spots of white, green, yellow and dark blue… and a dust-sized speck of red. This was the scene one could see when standing on the far side of the swimming pool. On this wet afternoon, only about 7 non-swimmer supporters from KE7 turned up to watch the swimming IHG. It goes without saying that KE had the smallest support team amongst all the halls, which was especially obvious because we were beside the numerous Sheares team armed with plastic noise-making bottles. But this did not dampen the spirit of our swimmers at all. All the swimmers, guys and girls, were relaxed and smiling, cheering on their comrades before the races.

The first guys’ race clearly showed that our male swimmers are not up to the level of the other halls’ guy swimmers. At least, not yet. They lagged behind during the whole race, but smiles could still be seen on their faces after they came out of the water. Their smiles did not wear off even when they again came out last for the second breaststroke race, a testimony to the admirable spirit of our swimmers!

The girls painted an entirely different picture, equally bright but with more definite consequences. With powerful strokes, Irene gave KE a good lead in all their relay races, so that some of the other halls had trouble catching up. Her performance was impressive and contributed a lot to KE7 achieving 3rd place overall on the girls’ side. One should not overlook the parts played by the other swimmers of the girls’ team as well - Angele, the only IVP swimmer in the team, Denyse, Ju Yeoun and Emily also helped to propel KE into the limelight. Every member of the team gave their best and brought honour to King Edward VII Hall.

An interesting incident after the 4 x 50m male breaststroke led to KE ending up 5th instead of last for that event. To the great surprise of everyone, it was announced that the winner of the race, Sheares Hall, had been disqualified for a false start.

This year, a new event called ‘Novelty’ has been introduced into the Inter-hall swimming games. It is a race for fun in which losing or winning does not matter, to give swimmers who did not swim for the other competition races a chance to participate nonetheless and show off their skills.

KE might have had the smallest team back there in the Singapore Sports School, but we definitely did not have the smallest joyful spirit. Just as Sheares’ supporters in the stands kept shouting ‘We are proud of you’ to their swimmers, KE7 can also be proud of its swimming team and of what they have achieved. Joe, the male swimming captain, said before the races that they ‘go with nothing, and hope to come back with something’. Well, KE7 Swimming Team, rest assured that you did bring back something invaluable to the hall - Pride and Honour!

“KE7 Swimming team, we are proud of you!”

- Sharon Lynn