The bar has been set pretty high but they will strive to reach it.

The national swim coach, Eric Landa, wants his two swimmers to break their own national records when they compete at the 14th Fina World Championships in Shanghai and they believe that they can deliver.

Knowing the standard of the swimmers, Landa is not targeting any medals at the highly-competitive event at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Centre.

Christian Nikles will be competing in the 50metres and 100m freestyle events while Anderson Lim Chee Wei is gunning to set new records in the 200m and 400m freestyle events at the July 16-31 event.

Nikles's time in the 50m is 26.01 seconds and 100m is 57.59 seconds whereby both were set at the Asean School Games (ASG) in Singapore earlier this month.

On the other hand, Lim's time is 2:08.18 in the 200m and 4:33.76 in the 400m.

This is the first time that both swimmers have gone to the world championships and will be under some amount of pressure. However, Nikles believes that this is a chance of a lifetime and he is looking forward to the tournament.

"I'm nervous, scared, excited all mixed together to go up against these huge names. It is pretty awesome considering that I only get to see them on tv but now a chance to see them in person," said Nikles before departure at the Brunei International Airport in Berakas yesterday.

"Of course, I'm going there to win but I know my chances. I believe we can break our records and nothing is impossible when we put our mind into it. I just hope that all goes well," added the 13-year-old.

Lim is in good spirits and he is hoping that all the hard work is going to pay off considering that they have prepared well when he takes to the pool in China.

"I'm confident that I can do it. We're well prepared this time as we have been training very hard. I go to training nine times a week and haven't missed a single session," said Lim.

"Not only do I want to improve on my times but I'm looking forward to meeting the world class swimmers to learn some new things," added the 15-year-old, who is a big Michael Phelps fan.

Apart from swimming, four other aquatic disciplines will be held; diving, synchronized swimming, water polo and open water swimming.

The competition will also serve as qualifiers for the 2012 London Olympics.

It means that there will be no Bruneian female swimmers in London next year considering that none were sent to swim in China due to the lack of quality.

Courtesy from Brunei Times