Ex-Olympians train young talents in swim clinic
KO TA KINABALU: The Sabah Aquatic Sports Association (SASA) hosted a Swimming Clinic on Saturday, which was organised by AirAsia Bhd at the Kota Kinabalu Sports Complex aquatic centre.
The one-day clinic saw AirAsia collaborate with British Olympian swimmer Ben Proud and the AquaElite Coaches in contributing a growth outlook to focus on developing Asean talents.
The Clinic aimed to provide young Malaysian swimmers an opportunity to advance their skills and sharpen their talents under the guidance of the ex-Team Great Britain Olympians turned AquaElite sports coaches.
Ex-Olympian Antony James from Plymouth together with Matthew Zammit from Malta conducted the clinic here after AirAsia had organised a similar programme in Kuala Lumpur and Penang respectively.
SASA president Anthony Kiob said he was grateful that AirAsia had chosen Sabah as one of the venue for the clinic this year, which was successfully coordinated by SASA honorary secretary Cynthia Chin together with AirAsia’s personnel in Kuala Lumpur and all the local coaches under the Sabah Sports Council (SSC).
“The clinic was conducted in two sessions, at morning from 8am to 12pm and followed by the afternoon session from 1pm to 5pm.
“There were 30 participants in each session and they were from Kota Kinabalu, Penampang and Sandakan who are presently under intensive training under the SSC local coaches including head coach Elvin Chia, Sean Goh, Benjamin Lee, Tie Mee Kiong, Eric Chan and Mike Yee.
“The swimmers were very participative and responsive during the session and able to interact well with the AquaElite coaches,” he said in a statement to the press yesterday.
The clinic includes pool and classroom sessions where the swimmers learned the latest advanced stroke techniques, dry land exercise, planning and strategies for daily set-up as well as short-term and long-term goals.
Anthony went on to say that Shairul Aiman of Penampang and Jemimah Tong Ying Ying of Sandakan, both 13 years old, have been identified for further training with the AquaElite Coaching Team after each session.
AirAsia will be sponsoring the two selected swimmers together with another four swimmers from Kuala Lumpur and Penang to undergo a two-day advance training in Phuket, Thailand on September 9 and 10.
“The group will train under Ben Proud himself in Phuket,” he added.
Anthony expressed thanks to AirAsia Berhad and the Amateur Swimming Union of Malaysia (ASUM) for giving Sabah a good opportunity to host such a clinic to enable the swimmers and local coaches to be able to gain valuable exposure and experience under the Great Britain AquaElite Sports Coaches.
“I hope Sabah will have more opportunities to host similar events including swimming and diving in the future,” he said.
Towards this end, Anthony also expressed appreciation to the SSC for their continuous support and financial assistance to aquatic sports and he also thanked the Sabah Sports Board (SSB) for providing the facilities with good services to make the event a success.