Brunei's young swimmers make history at competition
Sunday, April 1, 2007
BRUNEIAN youths shattered 10 national open records and four meet records to produce the country's best result in history at a state-level swimming event in Kota Kinabalu.
The 26-strong contingency, aged 17 and below, were sent to compete against more than a hundred other young swimmers at the 40th Sabah Age Group Swimming Championship in Kota Kinabalu from March 28 to 30.
Parents waiting to greet them on their return were elated to hear that their children had amassed 45 gold, 42 silver and 40 bronze medals, finishing as runners-up of the five-team swimming meet.
Fourteen-year-old Maria Grace Koh broke three of the championship's 10-year-old records, as well as setting eight new national open records for Brunei. The Jerudong International School student, who bagged nine golds and five silvers at the event, is also $800 richer following her victory.
She was one of the four Bruneians named best female swimmers in their respective categories.
Amnahliyani Hussein, another recipient of the best female swimmer title, set a meet record for the 400m individual medley and captured seven gold medals in the 15-17 years category.
Outstanding swimmer Amanda Liew, who received 13 golds and Jocelyn Wong, of three gold and one silver medals, were honoured as best female swimmers for competing in the 11-12 years and eight years and below categories respectively.
"This is the first time that we've had such good results," said team manager Harjimmey Zainal.
"All of Brunei's competitors won at least one medal. Hopefully at the next one, we will break even more records!"
He said that the impressive results were completely unexpected, as they were targeting a modest eight gold medals for the swimming meet. The team manager said they will be preparing for the biennial Arafura Games in the Australian city of Darwin in May. The Brunei Times
The 26-strong contingency, aged 17 and below, were sent to compete against more than a hundred other young swimmers at the 40th Sabah Age Group Swimming Championship in Kota Kinabalu from March 28 to 30.
Parents waiting to greet them on their return were elated to hear that their children had amassed 45 gold, 42 silver and 40 bronze medals, finishing as runners-up of the five-team swimming meet.
Fourteen-year-old Maria Grace Koh broke three of the championship's 10-year-old records, as well as setting eight new national open records for Brunei. The Jerudong International School student, who bagged nine golds and five silvers at the event, is also $800 richer following her victory.
She was one of the four Bruneians named best female swimmers in their respective categories.
Amnahliyani Hussein, another recipient of the best female swimmer title, set a meet record for the 400m individual medley and captured seven gold medals in the 15-17 years category.
Outstanding swimmer Amanda Liew, who received 13 golds and Jocelyn Wong, of three gold and one silver medals, were honoured as best female swimmers for competing in the 11-12 years and eight years and below categories respectively.
"This is the first time that we've had such good results," said team manager Harjimmey Zainal.
"All of Brunei's competitors won at least one medal. Hopefully at the next one, we will break even more records!"
He said that the impressive results were completely unexpected, as they were targeting a modest eight gold medals for the swimming meet. The team manager said they will be preparing for the biennial Arafura Games in the Australian city of Darwin in May. The Brunei Times
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