The national swimming programme has reached a crossroads and it needs to go in the right direction for a revival in the sport.
Malaysia concluded the Sea Games swimming competition in Hanoi with one gold, four silver and two bronze, finishing fifth among 10 nations. Malaysia are clearly spluttering at the pool against teams from Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore.
This is a slight decline compared to the two gold, two silver and three bronze won by Malaysia at the 2019 Manila Sea Games. Malaysia finished third among 11 nations then.
In Hanoi, Khiew Hoe Yean, 20, was Malaysia's standout swimmer, winning the men's 200m freestyle gold, silver in the 200m backstroke, 400m freestyle and 4x200m freestyle relay and bronze in the 800m freestyle.
The men's 4x200m quartet of Welson Sim, Arvin Shaun Singh Chahal and Lim Yin Chuen broke the 12-year national record.
Malaysia's 4x100m freestyle quartet finished second but were disqualified due to a false start by one of the swimmers.
Sea Games debutants Job Tan, who claimed bronze in the men's 200m breaststroke, and Bryan Leong, who set a new national record in the 50m freestyle, showed they have great potential.
On the women's side, Phee Jinq En, who won two gold in Manila in 2019, could only muster a solitary silver from the 100m breaststroke this time.
National head coach Chris Martin was nevertheless pleased with the swimmers' efforts and their potential. Hoe Yean and others have shown a marked improvement since the American coach's arrival in April in 2019.
"One gold, four silver and two bronze — I would have liked more than that, all swimming coaches always want more," said Martin.
"I would like to have the disqualified (4x100m freestyle relay medal) back, I would like to have a lot of things.
"But I really can't complain with the efforts that the swimmers put in, especially under the circumstances we have had over the last year and half with Covid-19.
"I was actually proud of the effort they put into the meet, they really kept after it.
"I was impressed with a lot of our youngsters (debutants). The kids really put in a lot of big efforts.
"Job Tan getting a medal was great and Jayden Tan, if he decides to really commit himself, could be a (big) player in the future.
"We need kids at the age group level to make a commitment to real swimming and not just do it for recreation."
Martin said he will sit down and discuss the future of the programme with Malaysia Swimming (MS) upon returning to Kuala Lumpur.
"We are going to have a meeting with the association when we get back. We have to decide on a strategy of competition.
"There seems to be three separate strategies throughout Southeast Asia and I think we need to choose either one or two of them.
"There is the Vietnam way where they (team) go away for nine months to Budapest and another three months in the United States (to train and compete). They get 33 people (swimmers) to commit to it and they support that.
"Then there is the Singapore way where they put a huge amount of resources into a great plethora of kids.
"Or we can decide (to focus) on event specific things and try to get the (physically) big people into the shorter events and people who want to work hard into the longer events."
Malaysia urgently need more young talent in the mould of Hoe Yean to make the step-up and take over from the seniors such as Welson, 25, and Jinq En, 24.