PETALING JAYA: The national age-group swimming championships to be held at Darul Ehsan Aquatic Centre in Shah Alam next week will see competitions in the Open category for the first time.
Medals won in the Open category will also count in the official standings and the inclusion should help some of the older swimmers, among them Daniel Bego, Khoo Cai Lin, Marellyn Liew and Leung Chii Lin, to retain their competitive edge.
The Amateur Swimming Union of Malaysia (Asum) secretary, Edwin Chong, said that it was part of the efforts to help swimmers like them who are still young but otherwise ineligible to swim at the national age-group championships.
The national age-group championships have competitions for Under-10, Under-12, Under-14 and Under-17 swimmers.
“We have a few swimmers who are over 17 and there are not many meets for them to look forward to in this region. It can get boring if they just train without the knowledge of the next competition for them,” said Edwin.
“We felt that it would be good to include the Open category in the national age-group meet to allow them to gauge their current form. This is the SEA Games year and we also want our swimmers to have more chances to qualify on merit.”
Besides the national age-group meet, the swimmers can also look forward to the Malaysian Open in Seremban next month.
Both meets will be for the swimmers to beat the silver medal-winning effort of the 2007 Korat SEA Games to book early spots in the squad for the Laos Games in December.
Asum also have plans to organise an invitational meet, involving foreign swimmers, but much would depend on the availability of funds.-The Star
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