Four of the Sultanate's top swimmers are currently undergoing intensive training having booked their tickets to compete at the upcoming 10th Fina World Swimming Championships (25m) in Dubai, UAE, from Dec 15-19.

It came as no surprise when Amanda Liew Jia Xin was on the list accompanied by the trio of Anderson Lim Chee Wei, Lim Jyh Jye and Mohd Bahrin Shah Behrom Shah.

The swimmers were selected based on their results during a time-trial held at the Aquatics Centre of the Hassanal Bolkiah National Sports Complex in Berakas back in August.

The team have been training under coach Jimmy of Dolphin Swimming Club, who took over duties of the national swim coach temporarily since the departure of Eva Wong in September.

Liew is the only swimmer with prior experience competing at a shortcourse event as she was Brunei's sole representative at the Japan Open 2010 in Tokyo last February.

She is set to compete in the 50 metres and 100m freestyle and breaststroke events in Dubai.

"We're currently undergoing centralised training under the Coach Jimmy and things have been going well. I feel that my stamina is improving as well," said Liew, in an interview with The Brunei Times, yesterday.

"I'm improving a lot on my turns and starts since I've been working on them for the past few months now. Hopefully I will be able to improve on my times in Japan," added the 16-year-old national swimmer.

"It will be interesting to see if I can do it but what I want to do is to gain more experience at such a high level competition and probably get to see some of my idols in action as well," continued the Bandar native.

Anderson, who like Liew trains under former national coach Wong at the Jerudong International School swimming pool thrice a week, will see action in the 50m, 100m, 200m butterfly events and the 100m, 200m and 400m freestyle events.

"Everything is going well. I hope to gain more experience and also to better my time," said Anderson.

"I haven't had any prior experience but we've been training at the 22m diving pool to get ourselves ready," he added.

Jyh Jye will be seeing action in the 50m freestyle; 50m and 100m butterfly; 100m inter medley and 50m breaststroke events. The 20-year-old swimmer is hoping to set a good benchmark for the future swimmers.

"We are currently in the final stages of preparations and working on our starts, finishes and turns. I'm aiming to do my best and set new record times for the events that I'm taking part in," said Jyh Jye.

Md Bahrin Shah was not available for comment.

The national swim team are expected to leave for Dubai on Monday.

Courtesy from Brunei Times