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Athletes eye success at Thailand track event
Sunday, September 6, 2015
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National athletics coach Isidro del Prado, Adenin Bolhan, Md Rachmat Safar, Md Faizul Abdullah, Md Asy Syaf'ie Md Bohari, Maziah Mahusin and Rohaidah Hassali before departure at the Brunei International Airport in Berakas. Picture: Courtesy of Maziah Mahusin


THE national athletics team are aiming for some improved personal bests at the Thailand Open Track and Field Championships 2015.

Maziah Mahusin, Md Rachmat Safar, Md Faizul Abdullah, Md Asy Syaf'ie Md Bohari and Md Adenin Bolhan are representing the Sultanate at the Sept 6-9 competition to be held at the Thammasat University Sports Complex.

They departed for Thailand on Friday and are accompanied by national athletics coach Isidro del Prado and Rohaidah Hassali of the Brunei Darussalam Athletics Association. Maziah is set to see action in the women's 200-metre event tomorrow and her best time is 25.44 seconds.

Brunei's first female Olympian is targeting a podium finish and is aiming for the national record of 25.22s set by Alinawati Ali Akbar at the 2001 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur. "I'm looking to run under 26 seconds and hopefully to win at least a bronze medal," said Maziah in an interview with The Brunei Times yesterday.

"The competition has attracted runners from South Korea, Chinese-Taipei, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Singapore. There are also SEA Games medallists. "We will absolutely do our best to win medals and I also want to break the national record," she added.

"I've improved my time in training and hopefully I will maintain that. "I'm excited as this is my first competition of the year and I can't wait for my race to start," continued Maziah.

The trio of Md Rachmat, Md Faizul and Md Asy Syaf'ie will compete in the men's 100m event. Md Asy Syaf'ie is the fastest of the lot with his personal best of 10.67s set at the SEA Games in Singapore in June.

He is looking to go faster and is aiming to break the national record of 10.59s set by Md Fakhri Ismail at the biennial Games. "I want to break my own personal best and if I can run well, Insyallah, to break the national record," said the 18-year-old.

"We had training earlier (Saturday) and it was really crowded. The weather was nice and the track as well. "I can feel the spirit and hopefully I will be able to do it," he added.

Md Rachmat's personal best is 11.10s while Md Faizul's is 11.13s. Both are looking to go under 11 seconds this time around. "My main aim is to break my personal best. I'm hoping to get under the 11-second mark for this competition," said Md Rachmat.

"But there are a lot of strong runners and I've seen are a lot of new faces and competitors," he added. On the other hand, Md Faizul is hoping to make it into the final of the event.

"This is my second competition of the year from since Jaunary. I hope to break my personal best and make it into the final of the event," he said. Md Adenin will see action in the shot put and discus events - personal bests of 13.75m and 40.41m respectively.

The Belait native, who won gold in both the events at the 8th BIMP-EAGA (Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area) Friendship Games in December last year, doesn't know what to expect from the tournament.

"It's been a long time since the last competition. I'm not sure what kind of results to expect but I can only do my best," concluded Md Adenin.

Courtesy from Brunei Times