Photo credit ©️The Schools Sports Federation of Hong Kong, China
Markson breaks the short-course 100m backstroke mark as the boys’ team claim overall championship at the Tuen Mun district competition
At AISL Harrow International School Hong Kong, the swimming programme has long been a quiet point of pride. This season it has become something harder to ignore. Markson, still in the under-10 age group, has broken the Hong Kong short-course record for the boys’ 100m backstroke, and the school’s boys’ team has claimed the overall championship at the Tuen Mun District Secondary School Inter-School Swimming Competition 2026-27.
The record arrived in the short-course 100m backstroke. Markson clocked 1:07.12, taking the Hong Kong age-group mark for boys under 10 from the previous 1:08.65. The time sits inside a wider run of results. At the 2026 National Youth Swimming U Series (Shenzhen station, short course) in the U9-10 group, he won the 50m backstroke in 31.78s and the 100m backstroke in 1:08.78s, both meet records. Days later, at the 2026 Shenzhen Youth (Children) Swimming Championships (long course) in the U10 group, he took the boys’ backstroke all-around title. He added gold in the 50m backstroke (33.37s, meet record), the 100m backstroke (1:11.58, meet record) and the 4×100m medley relay (4:52.68, meet record).
The individual haul is striking for an under-10 swimmer. What gives it context is the team result. Harrow Hong Kong’s boys finished as overall champions at the Tuen Mun district secondary-school championship, a competition that measures depth as much as any single performance. Age-group records and a school title in the same season are not common.
“Breaking the Hong Kong record was the goal I had written down,” Markson said. “The Shenzhen meets showed me the time could travel. The team championship is the one I am happiest about. A record is one name on a list. The district title is the whole squad.”
For a school whose swimming has often sat just outside the main conversation, the season has altered the frame. One under-10 swimmer has rewritten a national age-group mark; the boys’ team has taken the district title. Both facts now sit on the same page.