Grinning from ear to ear and waving at the cameras, Maziah Mahusin entered the packed Olympic Stadium in London on Friday proudly bearing the nation's flag instantly erasing any lingering memories about the botched Beijing fiasco four years ago.

Brunei was the only country not to feature in Beijing 2008, but thoughts of that were firmly cast aside on Friday as Maziah the first female athlete to represent the Sultanate at the Olympics historically led the country's contingent of three athletes out to 80,000 people and a global audience of up to one billion people watching on television.

Maziah is still pinching herself.

"Once we went into the stadium all of us were screaming. We couldn't believe it was really happening. We couldn't believe it wasn't a dream," she gushed surreally.

"Actually, we (Maziah, 400m specialist Ak Hafiy Tajuddin Pg Rositi and swimmer Anderson Lim Chee Wei) just couldn't believe we had made it (to the Olympics).

"We didn't have time to watch all the performances because we came late but it was awesome.

"The fireworks were beautiful. My favourite part? All of it," added the 19-year-old.

Though he wasn't as eloquent, Ak Hafiy sounded every bit as happy.

"It was great, I enjoyed every bit of it. The weather is alright and training has been going well," he said.

Maziah has been struck with flu and cough and did not train on Thursday or Friday though she said she will go for some light training yesterday.

It shouldn't be too much of a worry since she will only take to the Olympic Stadium for her 400-metre heats on Friday.

Ak Hafiy, meanwhile, is expected to lace up a day later.

The country will turn its attention to Lim today, who will take to the Aquatics Centre for the 200-metre freestyle heats which is scheduled to start at 5pm.

Brunei's first swimmer in the Olympics, Lim who trains at the prestigious Bolles School in Jacksonville, Florida will be looking to break his best time and current national record of 2:05.19, which he clocked last month.

Courtesy from Brunei Times