Club banks on young swimmers for title defence
KUCHING: Gymkhana Club Miri (GCM) swimmers are looking forward to defending their title when the 21st Miri Age Group Swimming Championship kicks off at the Miri Public Swimming Pool from today until Sunday.
The club will be fielding 28 swimmers, the majority of whom are young swimmers led by head coach David Chung who is assisted by Alister Chung, Frankie Ngu and Wong Hui Lee.
“This is the first event that we are participating in this year and we are looking for a good start to the new year by doing well in this meet.
“Most of the swimmers are young and we are hoping that they can do their best to win more glory for GCM,” said David when contacted yesterday.
According to him, GCM won the championship last year with 49 gold, 39 silver and 21 bronze medals after a lapse of 17 years and this year they are aiming to retain the title.
“We are expecting a strong challenge from Masa and Sailfish Aquatics Athletics Centre because they finished second and third last year,” he added.
The annual swimming meet organised by Miri Amateur Swimming Association (Masa) has attracted the participation of 140 swimmers representing eight teams from Miri and Brunei.
Teams from Brunei are Brunei Speed Swimming Club, Dophin Swimming Club, Skim Latihan Renang Tutong and KB Piranha while local teams are Sailfish Aquatics Athletics Centre, Kelab Rekreasi Petroliam Miri, GCM and Masa.
Assistant Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Lee Kim Shin is expected to close the event on Sunday.
“We will pay the fine, however, we are asking FIFA to provide information on the offences in more detail. If there is need to appeal, we will do so but will wait for FIFA’s reply,” he told Bernama.
The match was marred by fans from both sides hurling flares and mineral water bottles at each other.
Forty-one fans, 14 of them Indonesians were reported to have been detained by the police after the match. Malaysia won the match 2-0. A local English daily recently reported that FIFA had decided to fine FAM 50,000 Swiss Francs after finding violations against Articles 16 and 26 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code.
Prior to this, FIFA was reported as having issued a warning to FAM following crowd disturbances during the World Cup 2022/ Asia Cup 2023 qualifying match between Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates ( UAE) at the same venue on Sept 10.
The world football governing body also issued another warning to FAM after Harimau Malaya head coach Tan Cheng Hoe skipped the post-match press conference following the World Cup 2022/Asia Cup 2023 qualifying match between Malaysia and Vietnam in Hanoi on Oct 10, an offence under Article 26 of the Code (Failure to comply with media obligations).
Malaysia lost 1-2 to UAE and 0-1 to Vietnam. — Bernama