Syaiful and Brenda to compete with able-bodied swimmers

Tokyo Paralympic-bound swimmers Nur Syaiful Zulkifli and Brenda Annelia Larry will get the rare chance to splash it out with their able-bodied counterparts.

The National Sports Council (NSC) plan to enter the para swimmers for the upcoming national swimming meet next month and also the President’s Cup (inter-club) in December.

The two swimming meets will take place at the National Aquatic Centre in Bukit Jalil.

NSC deputy director general (strategic) Suhardi Alias said the two meets are in the pipeline and would follow the standard operating procedures set in place under the recovery movement control order.

“Malaysia Swimming have agreed to look into allowing the para swimmers to race together with the normal swimmers if it’s possible so that we can make the competition more exciting,” said Suhardi, after a working committee meeting yesterday.

“Otherwise, the para swimmers have no competition to look forward to.

“We are concerned they will be affected as they do not have as many competitions as the able bodied swimmers even if the Covid-19 situation improves next year.

“We want Syaiful and Brenda to be competition-ready as they have already qualified for the Tokyo Paralympics next year.”

Syaiful and Brenda will be making their Paralympic debuts in Tokyo.

Syaiful, earned substantial ranking points towards Tokyo Paralympics following his historic performance at the World Para Swimming Championships in London last year where he bagged a bronze in the 50m freestyle (S5) final.

His time of 33.20 was also a new Asian record, improving on the previous time of 33.87 held by Vietnam’s Vo Thanh Tung who set the mark when he won silver at the Rio Paralympics in 2016.

Sarawak-born Syaiful is swimming in the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle events.

Brenda, who is from Sabah, will swim in the women’s (S4) 50m backstroke event in Tokyo.