Singapore University Games (SUNIG) Aquathlon 2022
Oct 23, 2022
Singapore University Games (SUNIG) Aquathlon 2022
After almost a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic – the highly anticipated SUNIG Aquathlon made a return to the local racing circuit. As the only multisport event that features a mass water start in Singapore at the moment – most often held at the NSRCC Water Sports Centre at East Coast – where the last games were also held at in 2019 which saw close to 80 Athletes participating from the various universities in Singapore (NTU, NUS, SMU, SIM, SIT, SUTD).
With top honours up for grab in both the individual and team event, each university has the option to field their best 10 Men & 10 Women for the race. The National University of Singapore (NUS) was this year’s appointed host university. Together with local race organizer Orange Room Asia, this was also the first year the event was sanctioned by the Triathlon Association of Singapore (TAS) and its technical official team - with the event being used as another local data point for the 2023 Cambodia South-East Asian Games (SEA) Aquathlon.
As the seaside viewing gallery lined up with throws of supporters (alumni, seniors, cyclists…) the men’s championship got off to a blazing start as the familiar washing machine effect from the mass start was on full display. National triathlete Nicholas Rachmadi (NTU) - just days after recovering from COVID -set a fast pace right from the gun as he started to string open the field within the first hundred toward the first turn buoy. He was followed closely by the likes of other swimmers such as Liam Chan (NUS) and Dylan Siew (NTU) – all exiting a good minute or two before the first chase pack at the end of the swim loop. Having managed to stick to the swimmers, eventual Men’s Champion Cedric Chua (NTU) asserted his dominance as the strongest runner of the bunch once they exited transition and begun to pull away from the rest and never once relinquished that lead. Rachmadi held strong for silver and Liam came back with the bronze. Behind the trio laid many intense battles for the minor placings as the NTU & NUS athletes went full gas to reduce the time deficits for their respective team.
Just half an hour later the start horn went for the Women’s race.
This year’s women’s championship saw a dominating performance from the SMU Women Team with a strong three up strategy that saw their strong swimmers pull away from the bulk of the field early into the race. Chew Wei Qian (SMU) and Chin Khar Ann (NTU) emerged first two out of the water trailed closely by Lea Amort (SMU) in the first group while a large chase pack emerged at the back some two to three minutes behind. The saying on the professional circuit goes - “swim for show, run for dough” and true enough the speedy legs on the run course started to make a move as Rachel Hew (NUS) and Regin Ng (SMU) started to edge their way into second and third respectively. A fast-charging Rachel, who had also just recovered from COVID - looked to run down Lea in the closing metres but just ran out of runway as the exchange student managed to hold her off to take the Women’s title.
A strong showing from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) team sees them retaining the Men’s Championship for a third season running while the Singapore Management University (SMU) clinched a historic first Women’s title, ending NTU’s two-season run.
Team Champions (Men) - Combined Timing Fastest 5
NTU
Team Champions (Women) – Combined Timing Fastest 3
SMU
Men’s Championship
1st Cedric Chua (NTU) 30:03
2nd Nicholas Rachmadi (NTU) 30:29
3rd Liam Chan (NUS) 33:27
Women’s Championship
1st Lea Amort (SMU) 38:07
2nd Rachel Hew (NUS) 38:13
3rd Regin Ng (SMU) 41:01
Full Results