KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Aquatics (MAS) will look to continue "polishing" the skills of newly minted Olympians Khiew Hoe Yean and Tan Rouxin.
The swimmers, who both received unversality places (wildcards), made their Olympic debut at the Paris Olympics over the weekend.
Rouxin, 18, did well to win her heat in the women's 100m breaststroke preliminaries after clocking one minute and 12.50 seconds at the Paris La Defense Arena though it was not enough to see her through to the semi-finals.
Hoe Yean clocked 3:51.66s in the men's 400m freestyle preliminaries and also did not advance.
Although the duo were unable to renew their personal bests in Paris, MAS secretary general Andy Low said the national body is pleased with how their fared.
"For us (association), they did good considering they are first-timers at the Olympics," said Andy when contacted today.
"The coaches are happy and they themseleves are happy.
"They learnt a lot from competing at the biggest competition in the world, it was a good experience for them.
"Both Rouxin and Hoe Yean are still young and we expect them to compete over a few more Olympic cycles.
"They are our diamonds and we need to continue polishing them. We will keep on encouraging them and give them the support they need to become better swimmers."
MAS have implemented a number of key changes to the national swimming programme this year.
This includes - for the first time - appointing a technical director, Megan Oesting, to oversee the overall development of Malaysian swimming as well as bringing in a new head coach, Eric Anderson, to guide the national team.
"In the short term we have already started to see improvements in timing among our swimmers in local championships, a number of records have already fallen," said Andy.
"We hope we will continue to make improvements by providing our swimmers with a setup which they are happy in."
The focus in Paris will now shift to the diving events which will feature Nur Dhabitah Sabri and Bertrand Rhodict Lises.
Dhabitah will compete in the women's 3m sprinboard individual event which begins on Aug 7 while Rhodict will compete in the men's 10m platform individual which starts on Aug 9.