Swimmer Siew Hui’s got bigger fish to catch

Filepic of Selangor and national swimmer Yap Siew Hui in competition in 2013.

SHAH ALAM: Hosts Selangor will be counting on Yap Siew Hui for glory in the girls’ Under-18 category of the MSSM (national schools swimming) championships here on Sunday – but she has bigger goals to chase.

With this year’s SEA Games in Singapore being brought forward to June from the customary year end, the Amateur Swimming Union of Malaysia (Asum) have been forced to move the Malaysian Open swimming meet to an earlier date to accommodate swimmers trying to qualify on merit.

The Malaysia Open is also a qualifying meet for the World Championships in Kazan in July.

It’s not really hard to see where the priority lies for the 17-year-old Siew Hui, who won the MSSM overall best female athlete award last year.

Siew Hui, who excels in the butterfly events, has scaled down on the events she will swim in the Under-18 category of the MSSM this year as it’s too close to the Malaysian Open (from March 26-29).

“The Malaysian Open will take place a week (after the MSSM) and I will not be at my best if I were to swim in so many events like before (in the MSSM).

“I swam in eight or nine events previously, but I’ll only do five this time as national coach Paul (Birmingham) wants us to focus on the Malaysian Open this time. 

“I’m representing my state and I’ll definitely try my best to set new records (in the MSSM),” said Siew Hui, who won a silver and a bronze at the Asian Youth Games in Nanjing two years ago.

Siew Hui boasts personal bests of 27.54 in the 50m butterfly and 1:01.71 in the 100m butterfly.

“My dream is to qualify and swim at the world meet. I’ve yet to qualify for the world meet and I think I might have a shot at it in the 50m butterfly,” she said.

“The qualifying time for 50m butterfly at the world meet is 27.47 ... that’s not far from my personal best.”

Hosts Selangor are the defending champions in the MSSM aquatics meet but they can expect stiff challenges from the likes of Sarawak and Kuala Lumpur, who finished overall runners-up last year.

Sarawak will surely miss the absence of Welson Sim. The MSSM overall best male athlete is not eligible to compete this time around.