Mohamad Abdillah Tamin (L) in
action during the petanque
shooting event of the 26th
SEA Games at the Petanque
Pitch of the Jakabaring Sports
City in Palembang, Indonesia,
yesterday. Picture: BT/ Yee
Chun Leong

The petanque national team ended their campaign at the 26th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games without a medal after Mohamad Abdillah Tamin failed to advance to the semi-finals of the shooting event yesterday.

The 26-year-old Bruneian had a good start bouling for 31 points in the morning session to place 4th among the field of eight countries at the Petanque Pitch of the Jakabaring Sports City in Palembang, Indonesia.

However, only two players would progress into the semi-finals.

Thailand's Sarawut Sriboonpeng earned top spot with 43 points while Vathana Kay Khamphavong took second place with 38.

The athletes were then given a second chance in the afternoon with the remaining six countries bouling for another round. However, Mohamad Abdillah only managed 16 points to place last ending his campaign at the on-going Games.

Vietnam's Phung Ba Phi Long and Cambodia's Tha Heng moved into the final four with their scores of 37 and 34,

respectively.

Mohamad Abdillah probably ran out of gas and the heat might have taken the toll on him as well. Moving into the semi-finals would have guaranteed him a podium finish with a shared bronze medal.

"I just didn't have any rhythm and I couldn't play to the form that I wanted. I just wasn't feeling it and it was extremely hot as well," said Mohamad Abdillah during an interview with The Brunei Times after his event.

"But, overall, I thought I did okay especially in the morning. I tried my best already but too bad they didn't select the top four in the morning session itself," he added.

One issue raised by the player was that the umbrella used to shade the referee could have affected play because at the time of the day the shadow was just covering the circle. The winds were blowing and with the umbrella moving it could have disturbed the Bruneian's focus.

On the other hand, national petanque coach Somsak Juychunprasert felt that his athlete was not being himself on the pitch.

"I felt that he lost his confidence. He wasn't throwing with much power and things just didn't seem to work," said Somsak.

"But I thought maybe the camp (umbrella) could have been a factor and the referees said that it was okay to go ahead and didn't do anything about it," he added.

"He (Mohamad Abdillah) did really well in the morning but his concentration was off in the afternoon," continued the Thai.

The manager of the team Hj Rosmin Hj Md Hassan felt that Mohamad Abdillah might have overworked himself before the afternoon session.

"He had a really good first round, but maybe he lost his focus since he continued to practise right after (the morning session). He might have overworked himself a bit making his arms heavy," said Hj Rosmin.

The other player representing the Sultanate in the sport is Mazlan Hj Yahya and he too had failed to advance from the round-robin stage of the singles event on Sunday.

Courtesy from Brunei Times