【Features of National Intercollegiate Athletic Games 2014】

Swimmers Braved Through the Heavy Rain

Different from the first day, heavy rain poured down on the second day. Despite the weather, the swimmers still tried their best to show their practice results. The 100-meter Preliminary Breatstroke for open water swimming took place in the morning. Shien-yen Lee from University of Taipei won with a time of 1:03.42, breaking the record of the National Intercollegiate Athletic Games (1:04.07). Lee said, “Whenever I am participating in any competition, my father (Min-kun Lee) is always there. My father is the main reason for me to take part in each competition, so I want to perform well in each competition.”

As Lee’s father was a swimmer before, he trained Lee since he was an elementary student. Lee joined the training program for Asian Games when he was an undergraduate student. In order to strengthen his speed and staying-power, he had to practice swimming for 5 hours from 6 a.m. With hard practice, he won 2 gold medals at National Intercollegiate Athletic Games in 2012 and 2013. Lee hoped he could win the preliminary in the final competition taking place in the afternoon. He hoped the record will be high enough to take part in the Asian Games and that he could also  win a gold medal at the National Intercollegiate Athletic Games 2014. 

The 200-meter Men Open Water Swimming Preliminary-freestyle took place on morning of the 18th. The swimmers were in high competitive spirit. Yen-shin Huang from National Taiwan Normal University broke the record of the National Intercollegiate Athletic Games (1:53.30) with a time of 1:52.80. There is no doubt that the swimmers will bring us more and more surprises during the games. 

The swimming competition

Shien-yen Lee