Sukma: Brunei’s Joel Ling eyes 200m backstroke gold, but will settle for silver

KUCHING (Aug 15): After making history as Brunei’s first-ever swimmer to clinch a medal at the Malaysia Games (Sukma), 17-year-old Joel Ling Thai Yu is setting his sights on defending his silver medal, at the very least, in the 200m backstroke at Sukma 2024.

Joel, who dived into the world of competitive swimming at just seven years old, has been laser-focused on his training, clocking in nine sessions a week over the past two months to gear up for this year’s showdown.

“It has been a continuous process since I also trained for other competitions but for the past two months, we just focused on Sukma training that involved three-morning sessions, three afternoon sessions with gym sessions in between.

“The goal is to get either the same (silver medal) or gold… but in swimming, I also just want to improve my own personal best (PB) which is 2 mins 12.91s that I achieved during the last Sukma,” he told Bernama upon arrival at Kuching International Airport today.

Standing tall at 178cm, Joel isn’t letting a recent left ankle injury, sustained four weeks ago during training, slow him down. He’s as determined as ever to make his mark at Sukma’s 21st edition.

In the 2022 Sukma held in Kuala Lumpur, Joel took home the silver in the 200m backstroke, finishing behind Sarawak’s Hii Puong Wei, who clocked an impressive 2:07.07. The bronze was claimed by Low Zheng Yong, who recorded a time of 2:13.90.

“Hii Puong Wei will be competing this time so it is interesting to see that I am able to compete with him again, here in Sarawak which is his home state,” said the determined young swimmer, who hasn’t ruled out competing in future Sukma editions.

Meanwhile, Brunei’s Sukma 2024 contingent secretariat chief, Noorfairuzah Hani Mohamad@Zaini, expressed confidence in Joel’s ability to bring home more glory for Brunei this year.

She said this time around, Brunei, as an invited guest nation, will field 61 athletes in 11 sports, including wushu, swimming, athletics, fencing and chess.

“This year, the Brunei contingent is gunning for better results, aiming to surpass our previous haul of two silver and two bronze medals…our athletes will give their best,” she added.

Noorfairuzah Hani also said that Sukma is the perfect stage for Brunei’s up-and-coming athletes to showcase their talents while building strong bonds with athletes from across Malaysia. – Bernama