BRUNEI Darussalam have announced their interest to host the 41st SEA (South East Asia) Age Group Swimming Championships in 2017 after Cambodia proposed to defer the hosting.
Aziz Latip, President of Brunei Amateur Swimming Association (BASA) has offered to take over the hosting and the offer was unanimously agreed and supported by the rest of the South East Asia countries during the team manager’s meeting.
“I am pleased to announce that we will be hosting the 41st South East Asia Age Group Swimming Championships,” said Aziz Latip.
“The championships is tentatively scheduled to be in the middle to end November next year. This is an important. This is an important sporting event in the region and we will put up a good show to welcome the respective teams from South East Asia,” the president added.
Brunei last hosted the 37th edition of the regional meet in June 2013 and also played host in the 29th edition in 2005.
Brunei’s latest national junior swimming talent Nur Haziq Samil grabbed the headlines after creating a new age group record for 14-15 years old at the 40th SEA Age Group Swimming Championships and in the process shattering the nation’s Olympian Anderson Lim’s six-year record in the boys’ 400m freestyle.
The national elite junior swimmer recorded a time of 4:33.24s en route to winning his race in Heat 1, an improvement to Lim’s best mark of 4:33.86s his predecessor set during the Interclub Swimming Championships in Brunei.
Honorary Secretary of BASA Ang Beng Siong has acknowledged the elite swimmer’s efforts following his displays at the Assumption University in Bangkok, Thailand.
“Haziq had put in the effort and reaped this result. This will encourage him to step up and I will expect him expect him to go on and break more records next year,” said Ang.
He said that Haziq will continue to train under national aquatics head coach Eric Landa with both looking to work on the swimmer’s next stage of progress.
Meanwhile, BASA have released a competitions schedule in their calendar for next year with the regional meet open to South East Asia countries planned to be the season-ending tournament.
