KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Aquatics (MAS) honorary secretary Andy Low believes that it will be tough but not impossible for national swimmers to qualify for the Paris Olympics at the Doha World Aquatic Championships (Feb 2-16).
MAS will be sending four qualified swimmers to the world meet - Khiew Hoe Yean, Jayden Tan, Bryan Leong and Phee Jinq En.
Andy said the national body expects the quartet to show improvements in Doha, stressing that anything more would be a bonus.
"To be honest, it will be difficult for them to secure qualifying (for Paris) in Doha as the (qualifying) standards are quite tough," said Andy when contacted today.
"But having said that, all of them have been training very hard in preparation for this tournament and it all boils down to how they perform on the day, who knows?
"It would already be good if they can achieve the 'B' standard (Olympic consideration time).
"We, however, are not pressuring them. All we have said is that we want to see them train hard and achieve improvements, if they can get a national record that would be great."
Freestyle specialist Hoe Yean - national record holder over 400m (3:48.72s), 800m (8:05.11s) and 1,500m (15:21.92s) - is arguably the nation's best bet for Olympic qualification.
To earn direct qualification for the 400m event Hoe Yean will have to beat the 3:46.78s qualifying standard.
The Olympic consideration time for the event is 3:47.91s.
Athletes who achieve the Olympic consideration time will have to wait until the end of the qualification window to see if they can make the games quota for their respective events.