Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
IT WAS a memorable international debut for the Powerlifting Federation Brunei Darussalam (PFBD) as they returned with 18 medals from the recently concluded Southeast Asian Cup 2022 in Malaysia.
Held in Trove Hotel in Johor Bahru, six Bruneian athletes - coached by Mateen Amirrudin - brought home a haul of five gold, three silver and 10 bronze medals.
Jackie Chan was the biggest winner with four of the gold medals in the U66 Masters I category.
The medals came from squat (185kg), bench press (100kg) and dead lift (205kg) events.
His total of 490kg was also a new national record.
The other gold medal was courtesy of Ibnu Ayyub when he set a new national record in the U59 Opens dead lift event with 217.5kg.
He also won two silver medals from his total of 510kg and the in the squat event with 185kg.
Ming Lau was the winner of the other silver medal after producing a national record of 285kg in dead lift event for the U105 Opens category.
He also won three bronze medals: squat (252.5kg), bench press (152.5kg) and total of 690kg.
Ethan Goi (three bronze), Mickey Lim (two bronze) and Kevin On (one bronze) were the other podium finishers at the Sept 15-18 competition.
Lau, who is the acting president of PFBD, was pleased with the showing.
"Thank you to our neighbouring host, Malaysia for a smooth well-run event in our sub-region," said Lau in an interview with BruSports News on Tuesday.
"It was our country’s first international debut and the standards alongside experiences earned through this have been second to none.
"We look forward to participating in future international meets," he concluded.
