Float like a butterfly

Champion in the making: KL swimmer Bryan Leong is on track to emulate Singapore

PETALING JAYA: Singapore has Joseph Schooling but Malaysia may one day be bragging about an Olympian swimmer of their own in teen butterfly specialist Bryan Leong.

The 16-year-old cracked a long standing 11-year record en route to clinching his second gold for Kuala Lumpur in the National Schools (MSSM) swimming championships at the Tuanku Zara Aquatic Centre in Ipoh yesterday.

Bryan clocked a superb 56.14 to dip under Foo Jian Beng’s meet record of 56.21 set in 2008 – in winning the boys’ 16-18 age-group 100m butterfly event.

Melaka’s Low Zheng Yong claimed the silver with 56.90 ahead of KL’s Koh Teck Chen, who placed third with 57.58.

Jian Beng clocked the record time in March 2008 and went on to break two national records to be crowned the Malaysia Games (Sukma) Best Sportsboy in Terengganu three months later.

For Bryan, it is his second gold medal in the meet as he won the 50m butterfly event on Sunday. Bryan came close to breaking the meet record of 25.42 held by Keith Lim of KL since 2016 with his winning time of 25.51.

Bryan was all smiles yesterday as he proved his point after switching colours from Selangor to swim for KL-based Ikan Bilis Swimming Club.

The Garden International School student caught the eye of many by breaking Schooling’s 50m butterfly 14-15 age-group record at the 14th Singapore Island Country Club (SICC) invitation tournament last September.

Bryan’s winning time in the 100m butterfly – the same event where Schooling splashed to Olympic gold for Singapore in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 – is also faster than the winning time of 56.55 clocked by Sabah’s Hollymax Bell at the Perak Sukma last year.

Bryan has yet to compete in the Sukma and is definitely a new talent to watch out for when he swims in the 2020 edition in Johor.

KL also owned another meet record yesterday when Khiew Hoe Yean improved on his own meet record of 2:06.93 set last year in winning the boys’ 16-18 200m backstroke event in 2:05.55.

It was the 16-year-old’s third gold medal. He came out tops in the 200m freestyle and 100m backstroke on Sunday.