Open water swimming back in Singapore with a splash

SINGAPORE — It has been nine years since a large-scale open-water swimming event was last held in Singapore, when the Republic hosted a leg of the Fina Marathon Swimming World Cup at East Coast Park (ECP) in 2008.

After a long hiatus, the Singapore Swimming Association (SSA) and Liberty Insurance are now making a joint-effort to put the spotlight back on the sport - which is featured on the Olympic Games’ roster - once again.

To that end, the two entities will organise Liberty Wave, a three-day open-water swimming event from Sept 29 to Oct 1 at East Coast Park (ECP) to educate and give participants a taste of the sport.

The event will consist of workshops, which will include a full-day class conducted by International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame inductee Steven Munatones, as well as an open-water swim race on the final day.

Participants will get to choose to swim various distances – 1km, 2km and 4km – based on their degree of comfort in the water. A controlled 300m swim for children between seven and 12 years of age will also be held to get the young ones started on the sport.

Aside from encouraging more people to take up open-water swimming, the SSA is also hopeful of unearthing young talents, particularly after the success of national swimmer Chantal Liew at the recent SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur, where the 19-year-old won a historic bronze in the women’s 10km open-water event.

“We are delighted with the Liberty Insurance initiative to organise Liberty Wave, a large scale open-water competition for everyone,” said SSA president Lee Kok Choy.

“Not only is open-water (swimming) an Olympic aquatic discipline that we want to identify talent for, we also want to encourage everyone to learn to swim confidently in the sea. This reinforces our plan for every Singaporean to be a swimmer.”

Munatones, who is also a board member of the Fina Technical Open Water Swimming Committee, was delighted to be able to do his part in developing the sport in Singapore.

“When Liberty Insurance Singapore invited me to be part of Liberty Wave, I was very excited as this would be my first foray into expanding open-water swimming in South-East Asia,” said the American.

“I greatly respect Liberty’s desire to revive and grow the sport in Singapore with the support of SSA, and it would be my pleasure to set the groundwork here so that others can follow-up and further develop the sport in future years.

“There are no lines, no lanes, and no limit (in open-water swimming), so (for me), it’s tough to go back to swimming in a pool after experiencing how exhilarating and freeing swimming in the open is.”

Liberty Insurance chief executive officer Chang Sucheng added: “As an island, Singapore is surrounded by water, and thanks to the tropical weather, locals hit the beach anytime during the year.

“Developing swimming in the open water is thus more of an essential survival skill now than just a sport. This importance has also been highlighted by the recent drowning cases here.”

Visit www.libertywave.sg for more information on the event. Registration ends on Sept 7.