KUALA LUMPUR: Former swim queen Nurul Huda Abdullah is optimistic about the future of the sport in the country but has made it clear that it will take time to turn things around.
Ahead of the Hangzhou Asian Games (Sept 23-Oct 8), Nurul highlighted the fact that only four Malaysian swimmers have been able to win medals in the history of the games but is confident more medallists can be produced with the right approach.
Nurul, still the only Malaysian female swimmer to have won medals at the Asian Games and Asian Swimming Championships, has plenty of experience to draw from.
"Myself, Jeffrey Ong, Elvin Chia and Alex Lim are the only four (Malaysian) swimmers who have won medals at the Asian Games," said Nurul yesterday.
"However, I do see a lot of potential in our (current) swimmers.
"What we need to do is to study what the other countries are doing and analyse the data on their swimmers.
"We should also take a look at our own athletes and really determine which events we should be focusing on.
"I was the first Malaysian to win a medal in swimming at the Asian Games during the 1986 (Seoul) edition and won two silver and two bronze at the time.
"I was actually very, very close (to winning gold) in one event but at the time, our mistake was that we did not fully understand the performance of the swimmers from the other countries.
"This is a mistake that I have learnt from and will never repeat."
Nurul (assistant secretary) is one of three new faces elected to the Malaysia Swimming Federation (MAS) committee last week. The two others are fellow Olympian Marilyn Chua (vice-president) and Andy Low (secretary-general).
Nurul, a 22-time Sea Games gold medallist, said the national body are looking to implement a more inclusive approach for the 2023-2025 term.
"A lot of people have been very positive about the changes in the (MAS) exco. The stakeholders are very happy, they know we need this change.
"We will be meeting with all the stakeholders to understand what the issues are. In fact we have already asked some of them to come up with a wishlist on what they want to see moving forward.
"Hopefully, we can progressively implement these ideas over time."
Nurul, however, does not dare to predict how long it will take to see results.
"I don't want to put a specific time period on that because you have to understand that it is not possible to produce athletes overnight," she added.
National swimmers were only able to win one gold from 39 on offer at the Phnom Penh Sea Games last month which highlighted Malaysia's decline in the sport.
Just over a decade ago, Malaysia won nine gold at the 2009 Sea Games in Laos.