KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Swimming (MS) and the National Sports Council (NSC) have mutually agreed not to renew Chris Martin’s contract as national coach.
Martin, who has been with the national team since 2019, has a contract until the end of the year.
MS secretary-general Andy Low said the American understood that both parties no longer required his services and that he even helped MS find his replacement.
“He knows that we are looking for a new coach and used his connections to help us out.
“I would like to thank him for his great service and hard work, especially in helping Khiew Hoe Yean break the 32-year-old men’s 1,500-metre (m) freestyle national record at the Queensland Championships in Australia recently,” he told Bernama today.
Hoe Yean, who finished the race in second place, clocked 15:21.92 seconds (s) to erase the previous mark of 15:23.61 set by Jeffrey Ong in 1991.
Meanwhile, Andy said they have shortlisted a few candidates to take over from Martin and will announce the name of the new national coach next month.
“We have candidates from South Korea, the United States and Canada. All of them have coached their countries before. We hope to get it done next month.
“We also hope to appoint a new technical director next month. Two of the final candidates are from the United States,” he said.
On another development, Andy hopes they will have sufficient funds to send the national swimmers for a training camp in Thailand next month as part of their preparation for the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar from Feb 2-18. – Bernama
