THE final batch of the national contingent for the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games left for Laos yesterday.
The country will be represented at the Dec 9-18 event by 51 athletes and officials at the 25th edition of the Games, with yesterday’s delegation comprised of 38 members.
Yesterday’s group consisted of athletes from six of the seven sports the Sultanate will contest in Laos: athletics, cue sports, pencak silat, sepak takraw, taekwondo and wushu with officials and medical staff also on the flight.
The 11-member karatedo team eight exponents and three officials left last Saturday, with chef de mission Hj Muhd Zamri DP Hj Hamdani already in Laos since last Friday.
Competing with HRH Prince Hj Al-Muhtadee Billah, the Crown Prince and Senior Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office, in the men’s 9-ball pool doubles, Teo Chee Soon said he was ready for the challenge.
“This is the biggest tournament I have competed in and I am ready,” said Teo at the Brunei International Airport yesterday.
“I am prepared to partner the Crown Prince and I think we can do well if we just play our game.
“Though we have never practised together before, I do not think I will be nervous,” he added.
The only withdrawal from the list of athletes was pencak silat exponent Pg Khairul Bahri Pg Ali Umar, who was supposed to compete in the tanding Class F (70-75kg) event.
“He has been injured since last month’s 3rd Asian Indoor Games in Vietnam when he collapsed during his semi-final match against a competitor from Iran (Masoud Ghyasifar),” explained national silat coach Suhartono.
“He underwent therapy in Vietnam and also in Brunei, but it has become evident he has not recovered sufficiently,” he added.
One athlete who will be competing through the pain is Md Yazid Yatimi Yusof. Making his second appearance at the Games, he will compete in the shot put and discus throw events.
He won bronze in the men’s discus throw during the 2007 SEA Games in Thailand but the odds of the country’s only representative in athletics finishing on the podium again in Laos this year do not look promising.
Md Yazid suffered a liotibial strain with mild lateral ministrial injury to his right knee while competing in the Pesta Sukan Kebangsaan (National Sports Festival) last June and athletics coach Dario Viguilla de Rosas said it will affect his performance.
The Brunei Times
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