Golden oldies deliver at Yogyakarta

THE Sultanate's evergreen athletes showed that they still have plenty of gas left in the tank.

It was a good outing for Brunei after they returned home with a total haul of seven gold, seven silver and nine bronze medals at the 4th Indonesian Masters Open Athletics Championship 2012 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

A contingent of 12 runners with the oldest aged 70 from the Veteran Athletic Association of Brunei Darussalam represented the country at the June 23-24 event.

The biggest winners from the Sultanate were Hj Adenan PDP Hj Abu Bakar, Capt (Rtd) Hj Osman Hj Lahab and Ampuan Kifli Ampuan Hj Damit as they each contributed two gold medals to the tally.

The only other gold medal was courtesy of Hj Ariffin Abdullah.

The events that Brunei participated in were 100-metre, 200m, 400m, high jump, long jump, triple jump, discus throw, javelin, shot put and brisk walk 5-kilometre.

According to a press statement, their success in winning medals at the tournament was not only due to their hard work in training but from the support by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports for providing the facilities for their preparations.

There are more competitions on the calendar that the veterans are eyeing later in the year in Sri Lanka, Singapore, Taiwan and also Brunei.

They are looking forward to winning more gold medals in the upcoming tournaments to Brunei proud.

-Yee Chun LeongThe Brunei Times