KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 23 — A 15-year-old swimmer, who broke Olympic champion Joseph Schooling’s age group tournament record, is facing a bleak future after he was told to wait for one year if he wished to represent other states after initially refusing written permission from the Selangor Amateur Swimming Association (PRAS).

His mother Nancy Hon claimed PRAS is yet to respond to her withdrawal letter dated July 27 sent to the state association, after her son Bryan Leong Xin Ren commenced his A-Levels in an International School based in Kuala Lumpur.

Instead, Nancy said Bryan was told to sit out for a year by PRAS in order to represent other states. 

“When I asked Selangor coach Mark Chua through WhatsApp if we could collect the release letter on Aug 17, during the Selangor short course swim meet, he forwarded a message from PRAS which stated ‘PRAS no longer practises giving release letters. Swimmers who wished to withdraw from Selangor will have to sit out one year’.”

“As far as I know, there is no such rule, either made public or in written form. Further to his many years of trainings and competitions, we do not want his motivation to go down and cause him to lose focus,” she told Bernama.

According to Nancy, this year itself Bryan had broken 18 various age group meet records, including Schooling’s 50m butterfly event in boys 14-15 age category at the 14th Singapore Island Country Club (SICC) invitation tournament.

Bryan, who represented Ikan Bilis Swimming Club lately, claimed the gold after clocking 26.04 seconds, erasing Schooling’s 26.83s meet record set in the 2010 edition.

She also questioned the selection process for the Sukma, claiming that it was done without transparency, proper guidelines and information.

Meanwhile, Bryan said he was looking forward to compete in Sukma and was very disappointed after being left out of the Games.

“To my utmost disappointment to be left out as second best in the category based on timing,” he said.

When contacted for comment, PRAS Secretary Helen Chang messaged via WhatsApp that PRAS will respond to Nancy privately, according to its practice.

“We thank you for your concern,” she texted. — Bernama