SPANISH OPEN IS BRYAN'S LAST CHANCE SALOON TO MAKE PARIS OLYMPICS

KUALA LUMPUR, May 30 (Bernama) -- Next month's Spanish Summer Open Championships-Spanish Trials will be national swimmer Bryan Leong Xin Ren's last chance to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

And the 21-year-old, who recently broke two national records and bagged a medal at the AP Race London International, is up for the challenge to make a big splash in the June 18-22 championships in Mallorca, Spain.

His focus in Spain will be the 100-metre (m) butterfly, which is his pet event and the one he's hoping to qualify for the Paris Olympics.

In last week's AP Race London International, Bryan won a bronze in the 100m butterfly event in 52.95 seconds (s). The Czech Republic's Daniel Gracik (51.87s) bagged gold while Britain’s two-time Olympic champion James Guy (52.59s) settled for silver.

But to qualify for the July 26-Aug 11 Paris Olympics, Bryan will have to swim much faster.

He has to clock either 51.67s for the Olympic Qualifying Time (A timing) or achieve at least 51.93s for the Olympic Consideration Time (B timing) to book his spot in Paris 2024. 

It will be an uphill task, though, since his personal best in the 100m butterfly is 52.78s, which also happens to be the national record which he set at the World Championships in Doha, Qatar in February. 

But he can at least take heart from the fact that he managed to break two national records in the AP Race at the London Aquatics Centre last week.

Bryan first rewrote his own national record in the men’s 50m freestyle by clocking 22.91s in the heats on May 25 to erase the 23.07s he had set at the same tournament last year.

The United Kingdom-based swimmer then broke the national 50m butterfly record of 24.14s set by former national swimmer Chan Jie at the 11th Asian Age Group Championships in the Philippines in February by posting 24.08s to finish fourth in the final on Monday (May 27).

“Overall, I am very pleased to keep on improving and achieving new targets. I am happy to have dipped under 23s in the 50m freestyle and coming so close to breaking the 24s mark in the 50m butterfly.

“But I aim to improve in the 100m butterfly as it is my pet event which I hope to qualify for the Olympics. I will now turn my attention to the Spanish trials in June,” he told Bernama. 

-- BERNAMA