By Jaythaleela K
MIRI, April 8: Senadin assemblyman Dato Sri Lee Kim Shin is appealing to the Sarawak Sports Corporation (SSC) to place a full-time swimming coach in Miri to turn it into a centre of excellence for swimming.
“I believe with a full-time swimming coach for this division, it helps to strengthen and build up this division’s standard (in swimming),” said Lee, who is also Minister for Transport Sarawak.
He said this when met after presenting tokens to seven swimmers from the Miri Amateur Swimming Association (Masa) who would represent Sarawak in the upcoming Malaysia Invitation Age Group (MIAG) competition at Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, from April 13 to 16 (next week) at his service centre in Senadin.
The seven swimmers are Claire Lau Yu Rong, Hector Ho Rze Jun, Bong Rui Jie, Nuri Saadan Kahulid, Ryan Law Chee Heng, Liysha Liung Chen, and Ethren Ethanael Lim Churn.
“Miri has a lot of potential swimmers. In fact, it used to be a swimming powerhouse for Sarawak.
“Take, for example, this coming MIAG 2023 — we managed to produce seven talented swimmers for the event, although we don’t have a full-time coach.
“I believe when we have a full-time coach that can help to build up their talents, we can go further,” he said.
Also present at the token presentation was swimming coach Marianne Yvonne Heemskerk, a former butterfly swimmer from the Netherlands.
The 78-year-old won the silver medal in the 100m butterfly event at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy. — DayakDaily
