Fadhil Yunus
The star-studded national squad broke the national record with a new time of 03:41:65s in the Boys’ 9-26 Years 400m freestyle relay during the 8th Brunei Sprints Swimming Championships at the National Aquatics Centre of the Hassanal Bolkiah National Sports Complex in Berakas yesterday.
The new-look quartet of Christian Nikles, Zeke Chan, Joel Ling and Nur Haziq Samil combined to beat the previous time of 03:44:80s.
The national relay team enhanced their prospects of selection ahead of future major regional meets.
The Brunei Sprints Swimming Championships marked the start of one of the main domestic swimming events of the year.
National swimmer Hayley Wong, who already had an appearance in the World Championships under her belt, stormed to two new national records in the 50m and 100m butterfly events.
Hayley, who swam under the banner of Brunei Speed Swimming Club, has set a new national record with a time of 29.63s in the Girls 14-15 Years 50m freestyle event and 1:06.12s in the 100m freestyle event.
The competition also saw a healthy rivalry between Hayley and rising talent Sharmeen Md Mharvin, who is coincidentally her teammate, developing in the Girls 14-15 Years 50m breaststroke event.
Hayley eventually won the duel but Sharmeen, who is a year younger, is widely tipped to embark a same path especially in the regional and international circuit.
This was reflected with Sharmeen adding gold medals in the Girls 14-15 Years 50m backstroke and the 50m freestyle events to her growing collection.
The Boys’ 19-99 Years 100m freestyle event saw the battle of national swimmers as Christian Nikles swam to gold, relegating rival and FINA Scholarship holder Nur Haziq Samil to second place.
A total of 229 swimmers including 130 males and 99 females involving 11 teams registered for the event.
The 11 teams – including two overseas teams Miri Amateur Swimming Association and Persatuan Akuatik Labuan – also comprised Abs Swim Club, Brunei Speed Swimming Club, Dolphin Swimming Club, Hammerhead Swimming Club, Jerudong Swimming Club, Kbpiranha Swimming Team, LifeSkillSwim School, Mabohai Swimming Club and Panama Stingrays.
