Bandar Seri Begawan - The Brunei Darussalam contingent to the 24th SEA Games returned home to the beating of Hadrah and cheers from the awaiting crowds at the Brunei International Airport, yesterday evening.
Brunei Darussalam brought home one gold, one silver and four bronze medals from Korat, Thailand compared with one gold and four silvers from the previous SEA Games in the Philippines.
The country`s lone gold came from Haji Naim Brahim in the men`s singles in lawn bowling, while Norleyermah binti Haji Raya grabbed the Sultanate`s only silver in the women`s Tunggal in Pencak Silat. As for the bronze medals, Brunei came third in the men`s team sabre in fencing, Mohammad Yazid-Yatimi took bronze in the men`s discus, Masdiana binti Hj Tengah took third place in the women`s under 48kg in karate and Brunei`s team took the bronze in men`s pair in lawn bowling.
On hand to welcome the contingent were Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Dewa Major General (Rtd) Dato Seri Pahlawan Haji Awang Mohammad bin Haji Daud, the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, Haj i Matassim bin Haji Jibah, the Director of Youth and Sports and other officials.
The Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, in his welcoming remarks, congratulated the athletes on their achievements. He also highlighted, "The ministry will be doing a full analysis of the reason behind athletes who still seemed to be less focused and short of skills, namely, in technique and tactics, to make sure that the country and get more medals in future SEA Games".
The Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports presented cash rewards to athletes, who won medals at the SEA Games in Thailand, under the sports excellence incentive scheme.
On the athletes` performances, Dato Paduka Hj Jemat bin Haji Ampal, the Chef de Mission for Brunei`s SEA Games contingent, in an interview said, "The standard of other countries` athletes has risen so much that the bronze medal benchmark of the last SEA Games in Philippines was way below the bronze medal (mark) this year. An example is shot putt where our athlete threw 14.28 metres, which compared with two years ago was less than 13 metres. This year, the bronze medal winner threw more than 16 metres. So there is a huge jump in the performance.
On the claims of biased refereeing in the Games, he commented, "We were not happy with many of the judgements made by the referees in the competitions. We know what we witnessed and as commented by other countries, many were unhappy, including ourselves, in the judgements made in competitions. We could have won more medals."
He also said, "I am happy with the achievements we have-trade, but I would like to have more. We wanted more and we could have. We will plan for the next two years, and now that I have seen the achievements, we need to raise ourselves, and we will be better prepared in the next two years,"
Touching on future plans, he said, "We are going to sit down with the various sporting associations and work out the strategies whereby there are many things, including clear structure programmes, where all qualified athletes who want to compete in the SEA Games, could go through in training. And have specific achievements in a couple of years.
"With the cooperation of athletes, associations and the Ministry, we continue to give the support and we will improve further through the right programmes which are implemented at the moment. I am confident that we will do much better in the next few years."
Source: www.brudirect.com (17 Desember 2007)