Brunei will be good hunting

03/01/1999

THE Brunei Sea Games on Aug 7-15 is expected to produce a golden harvest
for Malaysian athletes who are preparing to top the overall standings at
the 2001 Sea Games in Kuala Lumpur.
"The Brunei Sea Games will showcase 21 sports and Malaysia are strong
gold contenders in almost all, so we can safely say it would be a fruitful
outing," said Olympic Council of Malaysia secretary Sieh Kok Chi.
At the 1997 Jakarta Sea Games, Malaysia won 55 gold, 68 silver and 75
bronze medals to finish third overall behind champions Indonesia and
Thailand.
From that haul, 16 sweet golds were delivered by athletics, crowning
Malaysia the overall track and field champions.
Brunei are expected to be an equally good hunting ground for the track
and field team.
"Squash, bowling, lawn bowls, athletics, gymnastics and hockey (men and
women) golds should belong to Malaysia if there are no upsets, so we are
looking at a very good overall finish in Brunei," said Sieh.
Although the Malaysian tally was way short of Indonesia's 194-gold haul,
the medals will be distributed more evenly in Brunei because of the
limited number of sports being played.
But there was a setback to Malaysia's hopes where shooting and
basketball are concerned because Brunei will only host the men's event in
basketball while skeet events will only be held in shooting.
It is understood some of the events were scrapped as Brunei does have
the facilities to host them. Furthermore, the 21 sports marked for Brunei
are final and the Sea Games Federation will not entertain any appeal for
more inclusions.
"Our women cagers contributed one gold in Jakarta while the shooters
delivered a handful of medals but in Brunei, the events will not be hosted
"However, it is only a minor dent to our hopes," said Sieh.
Taekwondo, karate, swimming and some of the minor sports are also
expected to fare better but cycling and soccer are not expected to shine.
Cycling told everyone how good they were before they left for Jakarta
but did not live up to expectations. In fact, they had to bank on veteran
Rosman Alwi to salvage some pride. At 37, Rosman has probably competed in
his last Sea Games.
If cycling disappointed, soccer was a disaster.
Confirmed sports: Athletics, badminton, basketball (men), billiards and
snooker, lawn bowls, boxing, cycling, soccer, golf, hockey (men and
women), karate, silat; sepak takraw (men) shooting, squash, swimming,
table-tennis, taekwondo, tennis, tenpin bowling, traditional boat race.
(END)