Selangor's Finest Head to Singapore — Swimming in His Honour
Selangor's fastest swimmers make the trip to Singapore for the 21st SNSC — competing under the weight of grief after the sudden passing of their coach, Ong Jin Kooi.
Selangor's fastest swimmers make the trip to Singapore for the 21st SNSC — competing under the weight of grief after the sudden passing of their coach, Ong Jin Kooi.
Three days before the 21st Singapore National Swimming Championships, the Malaysian swimming community lost one of its most quietly consequential figures.
Coach Ong Jin Kooi — the founding father of PADE-Supersharkz Swim Team and the architect of Selangor's junior development programme — passed away on the evening of 24 May. The announcement from PADE-Supersharkz described him as a mentor, leader, and inspiration who shaped countless lives both in and out of the pool. The outpouring of grief from former swimmers, coaches, and the broader aquatics community was immediate.
And then, 72 hours later, his swimmers got on a bus to Singapore.
The story of Selangor swimming cannot be told without starting at the beginning. When Ong Jin Kooi founded the PADE junior development programme in 1998, he did it with five swimmers. Not a state-funded initiative with full infrastructure behind it — five kids and a coach with a belief that Selangor could produce competitive swimmers if you were willing to build from the ground up.
Nearly three decades later, the SEL contingent at SNSC 2026 is the answer to that bet. A squad that spans every stroke category, competes across all four days of one of Southeast Asia's most competitive open meets, and carries seed times that demand respect from a Singaporean field accustomed to dominating their home pool.
That is what Coach Ong built. Every swimmer on the SEL start list this week is, in some measure, his.
Atlas Poolside readers will recognise several faces in the SEL line-up.
Hermann Tang Bok Yu is one of the most watchable distance and backstroke swimmers in Malaysia's age-group field. He enters the Men's 800m Freestyle on Day 1 and the Men's 200m Backstroke on Day 3, seeded at 2:14.41 — a time that places him squarely in the conversation. We have followed his progress since the Malaysia Open, and SNSC represents a proper international benchmark.
Liew Yu Shan carries perhaps the busiest programme in the entire SEL squad — the Women's 100m Backstroke, 200m Freestyle, 50m Backstroke, 200m Backstroke, 200m IM, and 50m Freestyle across all four days. That kind of schedule is only handed to a swimmer you trust in every discipline.
Joshua Lim Ji-Shen is another name our readers will know. A versatile competitor, he lines up across all four days in the Men's 100m Freestyle, 50m Butterfly, 50m Backstroke, 100m Butterfly, 50m Breaststroke, and 200m Butterfly — a programme that reflects both his range and his ambition. He is one of SEL's most complete male swimmers heading into this meet.
Kang Zhen Tai takes on the full breaststroke programme — 200m, 100m, 50m Breaststroke, and 200m IM. Chong Yuan Yi anchors the women's freestyle entries in the 100m and 200m. Khoo Sue Enn and Ngan Kang Yi Kayler carry the breaststroke flag on the women's side. Liew Yu Shan and Foo Jie Xin Rainne headline the IM and backstroke events.
The depth across strokes and genders is real.
One entry stands apart for a different reason. Liew Zeng Wye — currently based in the United States — has made the trip back to compete in the Men's 100m Breaststroke on Day 2. It is the kind of appearance that says something about what this programme means to the swimmers it produced. However far the water takes you, you find your way back.
The timing is brutal. Coach Ong passed on a Saturday evening. The championships begin the following Wednesday. There was no quiet period, no time to absorb the loss before having to compete.
What PADE-Supersharkz wrote in their announcement — "In this difficult time, let us stay strong together. That is what Coach Ong would have wanted for all of us" — was not just a platitude. It was a directive. And the SEL squad has answered it by showing up, named on start lists, ready to race.
His passion, dedication, and unwavering belief in his swimmers built something that does not stop when a whistle goes quiet. It carries forward in the swimmers who step onto a block, look down the lane, and do the thing they were taught to do.
Atlas Poolside will be at the National Aquatic Centre across all four days. We will be watching the SEL swimmers closely — not only for the times they post, but for what it means to race with that kind of weight, and that kind of purpose.
Rest in peace, Coach Ong Jin Kooi. The legacy is in the water.