Malaysia Invitational Age Group Swimming Championships cancelled

KUALA LUMPUR: The national swimmers aspiring to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics in July face another challenge as Malaysia Swimming (MS) have to call off the 57th Malaysia Invitational Age Group Swimming Championships.

MS secretary-general Mae Chen said they had to cancel the Olympic qualifiers scheduled from March 4-7 due to the extension of the Movement Control Order (MCO) till March 4.

Fingers are crossed for another qualifying event, the 63rd Malaysia Open Swimming Championships scheduled from May 20-23, as other meets probably would be in Europe.

“Due to the extension of the MCO, we are unable to proceed with invitations to all swimming federations. We are disappointed at not being able to host this event as this championship has been approved by the International Swimming Federation (FINA) as an Olympic Qualifier and we have notified FINA on the cancellation.

“We will be seeking advice from Sports Commissioner’s Office and Ministry of Youth and Sports on hosting the Malaysia Open. This is the other Olympic qualifying event approved by FINA and we hope to be able to host it, otherwise we will need to send our swimmers to other competitions to qualify,” she said in a Whatsapp message.

Prior to this, MS had to call off the National Sports Day swimming competition from Oct 9-11 last year, that was set to test the national swimmers, due to a spike in Covid-19 cases in the country.

Due to that, MS are planning to send the national swimming squad to take part in the 2021 European Swimming Championships, slated to be held from May 17-23, in Budapest, Hungary as part of their preparations for the Hanoi SEA Games in November.