The Brunei contingent for the
Dream Program 2013 with two
Korean embassy officials at the
Brunei International Airport prior to
departure yesterday. Picture:
BT/Yee Chun Leong

There is nothing other than excitement for the Brunei team participating in the Dream Program 2013 in South Korea.

The trio of Md Qazzri Fakhri Hj Aslimon, Florence Sea Wern Lyn and Md Shahriffuddin Salleh, who are all 16 years of age, are looking forward to getting a new experience at the Jan 6-17 programme.

The event caters to youth aged between 11-16 from countries without a winter sports culture and will be held at the Alpensia resort in Gangnueng, Gangwon Province, which will host the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

Six names were initially handed to the Brunei Darussalam National Olympic Council (BNOC) and the trio were chosen to fly the flag for the Sultanate.

Golfer Md Qazzzri Fakhri felt delighted to be given such an opportunity to be trained by Korean Olympic medalists and national athletes.

"I'm really excited and lucky to be chosen to attend this. I have done rollerblading before but I'm not very good at it," said Md Qazzri at the Brunei International Airport in Berakas yesterday before departure.

"It is also an honour to have these Olympians to come out and coach us. I'm looking forward to learning from them," added Md Qazzri, who represented Brunei at last year's World Junior Golf Championships in Jakarta and Malaysia Games (Sukma) in Pahang.

Md Shahrifuddin is looking forward to the outing and is glad to be selected.

"I'm looking forward to learning something new. I feel nervous to be competing but am glad to be chosen to go as this is the first time I'm going to Korea," he said.

"I've just been focusing on training for the past month to prepare myself," added Md Shahrifuddin, who won the men's 5km category during October's National Youth Day Run.

Sea, a swimmer, is expecting the programme to be fun and is keen on picking up something new.

"It is good to be able to learn some thing new a new experience. I'm looking forward to meeting new friends," said Sea, who flew the national flag at the 2011 FINA Swimming World Cup in Singapore and the 2011 Commonwealth Youth Games in the United Kingdom both short-course events.

"Since we had a two-week break from swimming, I went to the gym and did running to prepare myself for this," she added.

The trio will join 166 young athletes from 40 countries who will be enrolled in the Winter Sports Academy. Joining them on the trip is their coach Umi Karim, who highlighted that they will be focusing on skiing and skating.

Courtesy from Brunei Times