Caption: Podium finishers for the men's 4x100m event in a group photo with Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports Yang Berhormat Pehin Datu Lailaraja Major General (Rtd) Dato Paduka Seri Haji Awang Halbi bin Haji Mohd Yussof (front standing, centre). Picture: Courtesy of Mohd Fakhri Ismail
Ak Fauzi Pg Salleh
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
MOHD Fakhri Ismail bagged two gold medals at the 6th Brunei Open Track and Field Championships on Sunday.
The 2016 Rio Olympian won the first in the men’s 100-metre event after a photo finish with Sabah’s Eddie Edward Jr at the Tutong Sports Complex.
Fakhri, competing under Brunei-Muara, crossed the line with a time of 10.71s with Edward Jr being rewarded the same time.
KSL Wickramasinghe of Sri Lanka came in third place with a time of 10.82s to complete the podium.
The 26-year-old won the other gold as part of the Brunei Muara team - together with Abd Rahim Abdullah, Mohd Firdaus Ar-Rasyid and Md Faizul - in the 4x100m event recording a time of 41.19s.
They finished ahead of Malaysia's Axis PJ and Brunei Muara A who clocked a time of 42.71s and 44.90s respectively.
Fakhri, who holds the national record with a time of 10.59s which he set at the 28th SEA Games in June 2015, was pleased with the results.
“My target was to get my time to around 10.6s in the 100m but I’m satisfied to finish with two gold medals because this is the first meet of the year for me,” said Fakhri in an interview with BruSports yesterday.
“I didn’t expect to win the gold medal in the 100m but I just tried to dive and my torso came first as seen from the photo finish,” he added.
Fakhri had earlier placed third in the semi-final on Saturday with a time of 10.78s to see him move into the final.
Another Rio Olympian Maizurah Rahim, who was competing under Kuala Belait, also had a good outing with one gold and one silver medals at the two-day competition.
Maizurah finished on top of the podium in the women's 200m event with a time of 28.07s.
Dk Umi Ramizah of Brunei-Muara was second with 28.4s followed by Juliana Hj Kassim in third with a time of 31.69s.
Maizurah won the silver medal after clocking a time of 13.22s in the women's 100-metre event.
S.L Sarangi Silva of Sri Lanka won the event recording a time 12.47s, while, third place went to Dk Umi with a time of 13.48s.
Besides the 4x100m, Md Firdaus Ar-Rasyid also shone in the men’s 200m after a second place finish clocking a time of 21.84s in an event filled with international competitors.
