Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
THE future looks bright for Brunei swimming with the emergence of Zeke Chan.
The 15-year-old ended Brunei's medal drought at the SEA Age Group Swimming Championships in a decade by winning two silver medals in Kuala Lumpur last month.
He finished on the podium for both the boys 14-15 100m and 200m backstroke events at the December 17-18 competition.
Chan set a new national record in the 100m with a time of 59.68 seconds, beating the previous record of 1:00.25. His previous best time was 1:00.90 in November.
He then followed that up by clocking 2:12.24 in the 200m event.
Chan, who started swimming seven years ago, was pleased with the outing.
"I had tried to break the one minute barrier but failed in my last three attempts before this. So, This was a personal breakthrough for me and I’m just so relieved," said Chan in a recent interview with BruSports News.
"Looking at the entry times from the regional swimmers, we had to be realistic. My best chance was a bronze in the 200m backstroke event.
"To compete at that level and come out with two silver medals from the SEA Age Group Swimming championships was a big surprise for me," he added.
"I gained a lot of experience from this competition, met a lot of new friends and learned from them.
"It also made me realise that if I want to perform in overseas competition, I will have to work much harder to win," continued Chan.
Over the second half of 2022, he broke five national LC records (200m freestyle twice, 200m backstroke, 200m butterfly and 100m backstroke) and two national SC records (200m backstroke and freestyle).
Despite his recent form, he will have to tone down on the sport with it being an examination year but remains optimistic.
"I am sitting for my IGCSEs this year so I’ll have to give more focus to that. This means that I will have to scale down on my training," said the Jerudong International School (JIS) student.
"So I have to be realistic with my swim results and be selective for my swim meets. However, I hope I can still continue to improve and grow as a swimmer," he concluded.
