Selangor finally releases swimming sensation

KUALA LUMPUR: After a twomonth wait, record- breaking 15- year- old Bryan Leong Xin Ren finally received the release letter from the Selangor Amateur Swimming Association ( PRAS).

His mother Nancy Hon said she received an email from PRAS assistant secretary Marilyn Chua after Bernama reported on the matter.

Ac cordi ng to t he emai l forwarded to Bernama, Bryan may collect the release letter after 7pm Tuesday and the association also expressed its gratitude to the swimmer for representing the state.

On Sunday, Bernama had reported that the swimmer, who broke Olympic champion Joseph Schooling’s age group record in Singapore recently, was facing a bleak future after PRAS told him to wait one year if he wished to represent other states. Nancy had written a letter dated July 27 to PRAS to withdraw her son from the association after Bryan received a scholarship from an international school based in Kuala Lumpur for his A-Levels.

The mother said Bryan was told that “PRAS no longer practises giving release letters. Swimmers who wish to withdraw from Selangor will have to sit out for one year.”

This year alone Bryan has broken 18 age-group meet records. These included erasing Schooling’s 50m butterfly for boys aged 14-15 at the 14th Singapore Island Country Club ( SICC) invitation meet last month. He clocked 26.04sec to better Schooling’s meet record of 26.83s set in 2010.

“I am very happy that they ( PRAS) finally agreed to grant the release letter to Bryan even though they should have done it this earlier. I do not understand why it takes two months to reply the email,” Nancy said.