NATIONAL swimmer Phee Jinq En will remain in the United States to pursue her dream of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics.
The breaststroke specialist, a student at Purdue University in Indiana, graduated last week with a degree in Business and Management.
However, instead of making her way home, the 22-year-old has opted to remain in Indiana where she will continue training with the Purdue team.
The only drawback for Jinq En is funding as she is no longer covered by the university's scholarship.
"I am planning to stay on here and continue training. However, I will have to fund my training as I have already graduated and am no longer under their scholarship," said Jinq En.
"I hope I can get some sponsorship somehow to continue training in the US until next year.
"I've yet to have that sorted out as I'm not quite sure where to start looking, although I've also asked the Amateur Swimming Union of Malaysia (Asum) for help."
With the Tokyo Olympics postponed to next year due to believes she has a chance of beating the qualifying mark to earn a ticket.
Jinq En, a 50m and 100m gold medallist at the Philippines Sea Games last year, has not trained in the pool for more than a month.
"It's been quite challenging, transitioning from training in the water to dry land.
"My body was not quite used to it initially.
"But it's been fun coming up with new exercises each day to stay in shape.
"But I hope to get back into the pool soon.
"My plan was initially to continue training at Purdue until the Japan Open in June and then the Olympics, but it's not going happen now.
"I also doubt there are any training facilities that are open, so it's going to be hard to plan too far ahead into the future.
"I will keep on working hard and hope it would be enough to qualify for Tokyo."
Jinq En needs to equal or better her 100m national record of 1:08.05 to earn a ticket to the Olympics.
The Olympic A qualifying time stands at 1:07.07 while the B time is 1:09.08.