The biennial championships will be staged in the years when the SEA Games are not held and, for a start, will feature four of the five aquatic disciplines – swimming, diving, synchronised swimming and waterpolo.
Of particular interest are diving and swimming.
The three-day diving meet will be held at the Tao Payoh Sports School from Saturday and Malaysia will be represented by the back-up divers. Swimming, which takes place at the Singapore Sports School from June 13-17, wil see some of the region’s top swimmers in action at the last Olympic qualifying meet in the region.
The country’s top divers are currently preparing in China for the London Olympics next month. Hopes of continuing the country’s good reputation in the sport will fall on the five-girl and three-boy team assembled from Bukit Jalil Sports School. The likes of Jasmine Lai, Kam Ling Kar, Loh Jiayi, Mohd Nazreen, Chew Yiwei and Adrian Chan are expected to contend for honours.
There will be five events each for men and women – 1m springboard, 3m springboard, 10m platform, 3m springboard synchro and 10m platform synchro.
Malaysia, meanwhile, will be represented by the top swimmers as it will be their final chance to beat the Olympic qualifying time before the deadline ends on June 20.
Indonesia SEA Games gold medallist Kevin Yeap will be hoping to sweep the men’s middle and long distance events while Christina Loh and Siow Yi Ying should be contending for honours in the breaststroke races.
The other swimmers going are Daniel Bego, Vernon Lee, Lim Ching Hwang, Yap See Tuan, Ian James Barr (men); Khoo Cai Lin, Erika Kong, Hii Siew Siew, Marellyn Liew and Chui Lai Kwan (women).
Five swimmers have already beaten the Olympic selection time – Yi Ting (women’s 100m and 200m breaststroke), Cai Lin (400m and 800m freestyle), Christina (100m breaststroke), Lai Kwan (50m freestyle) and Kevin (1,500m freestyle) but have not qualified. They still need to improve on their timings to get entry to the Olympics based on the rankings.
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