Chin Woo Biathlon

We will temporary stop three more postings on Singapore Marathon for this Biathlon race. It was held at Chin Woo swimming pool this morning, Sunday 11 December 2005.

The format of this race is to swim 800 meters and run 7 km. The swimmers are to swim along the shorter distance of the swimming pool. Officials are stationed at the starting end to record the number of laps completed by each swimmer.

A few of the Penguin runners (Chee Wee, Eric, Terence) were taking part. So this time, I became the camera man. I was most glad to hear that Jason Lee was coming to take photos too. With his Nikon D-SLR and huge telephoto lenses, my Canon IXUS compact camera was like a short gun compared to a Bazooka.


Chee Wee told us earlier that his loved one was a bit worried and discouraged him from taking part in this swimming event as she has not seen his swimming style and not sure whether he could swim that far. So we told him to hang on to something in water during emergency; for example, another swimmer. Another running friend suggested that he should hang on to the bra strip as it is of high tensile strength and more elastic – won’t snap easily.

Chee Wee’s fear came true – he was alloted to Lane 13 which was at the deep end of the pool. Hearing that sent chills up my back; I shared the same sentiment that Chee Wee should change lane. Don Khor, the facilitator of this event and is also a triathlete, was most understanding. So he re-assigned Chee Wee to swim at the swallow end of the pool which was not marked by buoys. I called it the “open sea” area as he could have one-third of the pool to himself and he could swim in any style he chose without having to worry about kicking another swimmer.

What happened to our Penguin Grand Master? Jason Lee had an appointment and we decided to leave at 10am. While walking down the slope with him to the car park, we overhead the race support crew’s conversation in Cantonese:

“Have all runners come back already? Can we 'sau thong' (close shop) already?”
“Looks like the ‘Fei Chai’ (fat boy) is still not back yet.”

Please wait for the long report from Chee Wee.

To view photos by courtesy of Jason Lee (59 photos), please click here.

Note: Jason Lee's photos view directly from PC are stunning, clear, beautiful and of rasor-sharp quality -- treadmark of Nikon SLR camera. However, after downsize (by me, of course) with medium resulution and view via Internet, quality is compromised.

To view photos by KC (24 photos), please click here.

By KC