One of the teams from
Indonesia the Bontang Team
at the dinner held at the Duli
Pengiran Muda Al-Muhtadee
Billah College (Maktab Duli) in
Gadong last night. Picture: BT

Brunei are ready for the Special Olympics Borneo Cup.

Eight teams and 64 athletes, participating in the on-going 5th Special Olympics Borneo Cup 5-a-side football tournament, were last night treated to dinner by organisers the Special Olympics Brunei Darussalam (SOBD) at the Duli Pengiran Muda Al-Muhtadee Billah College (Maktab Duli) in Gadong near here.

And now they are raring to go especially the three teams from Brunei.

Hj Hamdan Hj Ajak, one of the coaches for the Brunei teams and Sports Director of SOBD, said the Brunei teams were ready for action and had prepared well for the tournament.

Hj Hamdan told The Brunei Times: "We are ready, we do still have things to sort out, but generally we are prepared. Our Team A are in their prime, they're ready to challenge the rest."

Brunei are represented by Team A the side that won the Asean 5 + 1 Football Tournament in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, back in September and two other teams made up of pupils from the Special Education Unit, Pusat Ehsan Al-Ameerah Al-Hajjah Maryam and Pusat Bahagia.

Asked who were their main rivals, he quickly said: "Indonesia".

Indonesia are also represented by three teams and one of them are Team Berau from East Kalimantan, who were champions of the 4th edition of the tournament held in Kalimantan, Indonesia, in 2009.

Jailani Muhammad, the Coordinator of Special Olympic Indonesia in Kalimantan and Head of Delegation of Bontang, Kalimantan, Indonesia, acknowledges they are one of the favourites for the title, but remain cautious of their chances at the Dec 1-4 tournament.

"We are going to wait for the draw tomorrow (Friday) to see how we will do," said Jailani.

The eight sides three each from Brunei and Indonesia and one each from Sabah and Sarawak will be divided into two four-team groups. The early rounds will be held in a round-robin format and the top two teams from each group will then qualify for the quarter-finals.

Courtesy from Brunei Times