Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
BRUNEI’S chef de mission to the 30th SEA Games Hj Muhd Zamri Dato Paduka Hj Hamdani couldn’t contain his happiness after the national polo team bagged the country’s second gold medal yesterday.
The result means this is Brunei's best showing at the SEA Games on foreign soil - winning more than one gold medal for the first time since making their debut at the biennial Games in 1977.
Their haul of two gold, five silver and six bronze medals is only second to their outing in the 1999 edition, which they hosted and won four gold, 12 silver and 31 bronze medals.
“I cried beyond control when the whistle was blown for the final polo match today (Monday),” said Hj Zamri in an interview with BruSports News yesterday.
“As I said before my departure, I had a good instinct we could get at least one gold medal but now it’s unimaginable that we got two gold medals in our favour.
“Thanks Allah that this SEA Games is the best ever since 1999 when Brunei hosted the Games and also the best achievement for the Brunei contingent in any SEA Games participation overseas,” he added.
“Our prayers came true and a special thanks to His Majesty, the Sultan for coming down to Manila to give his morale support to us. It was really a true motivator for all of us in the Brunei Contingent,” continued the Brunei CDM.
Despite the achievement, Hj Zamri also highlighted it wasn’t all smooth sailing for them at the Nov 30 - Dec 11 event having face plenty of difficulties.
“We managed to get things done eventhough day to day activities sometimes cannot be met perfectly by the organisers,” said Hj Zamri.
“With the efficient staff of my secretariat, we were able to move on as what we planned everyday.
“Secondly the other day the Philippines was attacked by a typhoon. That was one of the challenges as there were a lot of rescheduling of games especially the outdoor activities,” he added.
“Alhamdulillah we still managed to advise the athletes to be indoors all the time and were alerted every now and then on the situation. That was a big challenge for us,” continued the 59-year-old.
Another obstacle was logistics as the CDM is based in Manila while a round trip to the polo venue in Catalagan would take seven to eight hours.
Regardless, Hj Zamri knew it had to be done and still executed his day-to-day job accordingly.
“I’m happy to do my job. There are no complaints and I still have time to work inside my car and provide my report perfectly to all the relevant people back home,” explained Hj Zamri, who was first involved in the SEA Games management back in 2005, which was also hosted by the Philippines.
“Those are some of the challenges that we faced here but some people don’t understand that and think that we have many secretariat here and are just fooling around,” he concluded.
The national wushu team were the biggest winners for Brunei at the Games clinching one gold, three silver and two bronze medals.
Besides gold, the national polo team also won bronze in Division A: 4-6 goals while the lawn bowls team delivered two silver and one bronze medals.
The other bronze medals came from pencak silat, karatedo and netball.
