Brunei optimistic in 19th SEA Games

Brunei optimistic in 19th SEA Games

As the Southeast Asian Games XIX draw near, The Jakarta Post
will run profile of each of the 10 participating countries. The
story below is the first of the series.

JAKARTA (JP): Despite relatively little preparation for this
year's Southeast Asian Games and no great hopes for gold medals,
the Brunei Darussalam athletes are optimistic and ready to give
their best at the biennial event.

Brunei's Youths and Sports Director Talib Haji Berudin said
recently that the athletes had to meet "minimum standards" before
they were selected to join the contingent.

A total of 226 athletes -- Brunei's biggest ever contingent
since it first participated in the Games in 1977 -- will contest
17 of the 34 sports in the Games.

Some 4,300 sportsmen and women from 10 countries in the region
will race for the 440 gold medals at stake in the event which
starts next week.

Brunei will take part in track and field (10 participants),
billiards and snooker (11), body building (5), boxing (4),
cycling (8), soccer (18), golf (4), hockey (32), karate (15),
Indonesia's traditional martial art pencak silat (27), sepak
takraw (12), shooting (6), softball (15), taekwondo (3), tennis
(1), ten pin bowling (6), and the traditional boat race (49).

Unlike their Indonesian counterparts or those of the other
eight participating countries, Brunei's athletes not been
preparing for months.

Kompas reported that Brunei's athletes have practiced for an
average of four hours per day, five days a week. Most of the
athletes are juniors. And that it was only since early last month
that they concentrated their practice in the country's national
training center, for two weeks.

Talib was quoted by the daily as saying that it was difficult
to set any target for his country, despite the athletes showing
an overall improvement. This was because the improvements were
not relative to athletes from other participating countries, he
said.

However, Brunei -- an oil rich country with a tiny population
of about 300,000 -- is gunning for gold medals in pencak silat,
low-class body building, and shooting. Silver and bronze medals
could come from track and field, taekwondo, and karate.

In SEA Games history, Brunei's best achievement was in 1987,
also in Jakarta, when it grabbed one gold medal -- from pencak
silat --, six silvers, and 17 bronzes.

Brunei won a modest medal collection of two silvers and six
bronzes in the last event in Chiang Mai, Thailand two years ago.

The Brunei's government, as usual, is offering no big bonuses
to its winning athletes, according to Talib. He said: "We don't
want our athletes to picture dollars before their eyes by
promising big bonuses to gold medalists. However, if they do
well, we will support them."

Brunei is one of the richest countries in the world, on a per
capita basis, with its Sultan Hasanal Bolkiah dubbed the world's
richest man. (aan)