Muhammad Isa Ahmad
competing in the men's
50-metre breaststroke
at the World
Championships in
Barcelona yesterday.
Picture: Courtesy of
Eric Landa
There was no new record for Muhammad Isa Ahmad in the men's 50-metre breaststroke yesterday.
The 15-year-old finished with a time of 31.68s for the event at the World Championships in Barcelona.
The Bruneian had already set a new national record of 31.29s at the turn of the 100m breaststroke on Sunday.
His time places him sixth out of 10 in Heat 3 and 66th overall out of 83 swimmers at the Palau Sant Jordi.
Cameron Van der Burgh of South Africa was the fastest in the heats and was the only competitor to swim under 27 seconds with a time of 26.78s.
National swim coach Eric Landa felt that it was a good race with good race strategy but he was disappointed that his swimmer failed to set a new record.
"Swimming went well, good start, good stroke rate, however a bit too tired at the end to pull off another stunt like he did on Sunday," said Landa.
"A bit disappointing but that's swimming. Sometimes it goes according to plan, sometimes it doesn't," he added.
"Therefore it's always important to evaluate the training process, analyse the race, what went right, what went wrong and make changes for the next time," continued the Dutchman.
Landa, who has plied his trade in six countries, will be looking to go back to the drawing board.
"We are after continuous improvement for these age group swimmers. Isa is 15 years old and the Bruneian swimmers are swimming here at an elite senior tournament where the best of the best compete," said Landa.
"Continuous improvement is important to reach that elite level. However, it never goes in one straight line. There are always some speed bumps," he added.
"Sometimes you have to make mistakes to know what you have to improve on. You fall down, you get back up and you try to do better again. That's how you reach the top," concluded the former Egypt national coach.
That is the end of Muhammad Isa's campaign at the World Championships as he had completed the 100m breaststroke with a time of 1:09.96 on Sunday.
His elder sister, Nur Hamizah Ahmad, completed the women's 100m backstroke with a time of 1:13.25 on Monday.
She was one stroke shy of breaking the national record with her old time of 1:12.60 from last month.
The 17-year-old will take to the pool again today in the 50m backstroke event.
Joining the siblings at the World Championships are Christian Nikles and Tiara Sharil Anwar.
Nikles will also see action today in the men's 100m freestyle.
He will also swim the 50m freestyle tomorrow.
Tiara's will start with the women's 100m freestyle tomorrow and end with the 50m freestyle on Saturday.
