Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
IT will be a different affair for the national silat team heading into the 31st Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Vietnam this month.
The seni events, which were previously contested in a pool system, has been changed to a knockout system.
Brunei returned with one bronze medal in the last edition of the Games with Anisah Najihah Abdullah finishing third in the women’s seni tunggal event.
She will once again feature in the same event this time around and will also join forces with Norleyermah Hj Raya and Nur Wasiqah Aziemah Rosihan for the women’s regu event.
The trio had won silver at the 8th Singapore Open Pencak Silat Championships in October 2019.
On the other hand, Muhammad Ali Saifullah Abdullah Muhammad Suhaimi will make his debut in the men’s tunggal event.
National pencak silat coach Hj Md Khairul Bahrin Hj Duraman touched on the struggles on getting prepared.
“It has been almost two years without any outside competition and limited to only virtual tournaments,” said Hj Md Khairul Bahrin in an interview with BruSports News recently.
“During the third wave, we moved towards online training and it was most difficult for the team event to check on synchronisation as sometimes the internet was laggy.
“It was in November that we started some physical training. Then in April we switched our programme to be focused on conditioning as we are worried about picking up injuries,” he added.
“We can’t push too much and want to ensure we peak during competition,” continued the 2009 SEA Games gold medallist.
Anisah is looking forward to be back in action and hopes to finish on the podium once again.
“I haven’t really set a target but I want to do my best to get a medal again despite it being a knockout system,” said Anisah.
“We have been training since last year and constantly checking our times. We have been doing three sets of three minutes each and 10 minutes rest in between.
“I’m excited to compete in team event again as it has been a long time. We are all looking forward to it,” she added.
A veteran in the sport, Norleyermah, is glad to be back to represent Brunei again.
“I just hope we can do our best because everyone wants the medal.
“With the new rules this year on being a knockout system, we just hope that we can at least go to the final,” she concluded.
