The national sepak takraw team with national coach Ittiphol Comchaissak (3rd L) after a training session yesterday at the Multipurpose Hall of the Menglait Sports Complex. Picture: BT/Yee Chun Leong
Ismail Ang (L) and Mohd Hafizzuddin Jamaludin during a recent training session at the Multipurpose Hall of the Menglait Sports Complex. Picture:BT/Yee Chun Leong
The national sepak takraw team are in shape and in good spirits.
They are busy preparing themselves for the upcoming 27th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Myanmar in December.
The team will take part in three out of the five events on offer at the biennial multisport competition.
They will compete in the doubles, team (doubles) and hoop events.
Md Shukri Jaineh, Ismail Ang and Marzuki Munap are the returning trio from the previous edition in Indonesia two years ago.
They are joined by Humaidi Brahim, Abd Hadi Ariffin Matazi and Mohd Hafizzuddin Jamaludin.
All six players will see action in both the team and hoop events while the players have yet to be determined for the doubles event.
Ittiphol Comchaissak, the national sepak takraw coach, is confident of his charges and is looking to bring the best out of them.
"We chose these three events because I think they are the best chances for getting medals," said Ittiphol in an interview with The Brunei Times after a training session at the Multipurpose Hall of the Menglait Sports Complex on Tuesday.
"We will go to Thailand to train for three weeks some time next month. We are looking to improve by training with the best. They won gold in both the doubles and hoop events during the King's Cup," he added.
"There is good progress right now. We will keep working hard at training because that is the only way to get better," continued the Thai.
They contested at the 28th King's Cup Sepak Takraw Championship 2013 in Thailand last month where they won silver in the team event of Division 1 after losing to the Philippines in the final.
They also bagged bronze in the hoop event out of the 14 teams beating Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam in the process.
Right after was the second round of the International Sepak Takraw Federation (ISTAF) Super Series 2013 also in Thailand where they remain in ninth position of the 12-team tournament.
Ittiphol revealed that they will be sending the junior team instead for the final leg to be held in Kota Kinabalu from Oct 31 - Nov 3.
"We didn't do as well because we didn't train enough for the regu (triple) events.
"We will have the junior team represent the country for the final leg. We are focus more on the events that we are contesting at the SEA Games," concluded Ittiphol.
The team trains twice a day, six times a week at Menglait.
