“I actually played competitively for Queenstown in the local scene until in my 50s,” he added.
Ms Cheong also served as vice-president of swimming with the Singapore Swimming Association for a short period of time. But her relationship with her sport was slightly more complicated.
“It’s more of a love-hate thing. I was burnt out already by the time I quit the sport, I really didn’t want to touch the water so much, I didn’t train by myself a lot. If I do, I’d just go and do a few laps,” she said.
“But I would say that over the recent years, I have come to terms with my past. That ‘hate’ part is gone, I’m much more comfortable going back.”
When the opportunity to take part in the Masters Championships in Singapore this year came up, the husband-and-wife duo decided to take the plunge.
“He was the instigator. He was the one talking to me about it,” said Ms Cheong.
“How often does Singapore host this?” added Mr Koh. “I was pretty excited.”
But it is also not without a sense of trepidation.
“A bit fearful in the sense that water polo is a fitness game, and we’re all so out of shape. Getting the team together was a bit intimidating,” said Mr Koh.
“But other than that, we always try to remind ourselves that we train a bit differently. Now, we don’t do so much sprints because we’re all old.”
Ms Cheong will compete in two relays – the 4x50m freestyle and the 4x50m medley – with some former teammates.
“Three of us are old teammates … We trained together, we were from the same club before. So it’s more of for old times’ sake,” she said.
More than competing, the pair are looking forward to simply doing sport together again.
“It’s nice to do things together. Even though we are in different venues, with different timings (for our events),” said Mr Koh.
‘I used to watch him training. Those were really fun times. Now, less so because 40 years have passed, and we’ve been working,” added Ms Cheong. “It would be really nice to go watch him again.”
