It was a good debut for Md Sufi Shayiran Roslan (pic) at the 12th World Wushu Championships in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.
He finished 12th out of 38 competitors in the nanquan (southern fist) event tallying 9.47 points.
Ho Mun Hua of Malaysia won gold on 9.63 points, Japan's Koki Nakata was second with 9.60 points while Farshad Arabi of Iran was a further 0.01 points behind to complete the podium.
National wushu coach Li Hui was delighted with his athlete's performance considering it was his first time competing at the world stage.
"Sufi showed his best performance today (Friday)," said Li via email.
"I'm happy and proud of him with the result.
"Every country brought their best athlete to the competition - which gave Sufi good experience.
"I want to thank the Brunei government, Brunei Darussalam National Olympic Council and lastly the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports for supporting wushu," continued Li.
Sufi still has two events to go during the Oct 28 - Nov 6 biennial competition.
He will see action today in the nangun (southern staff) event at the Kuala Lumpur Badminton Stadium - an event in which he won bronze in during the 7th Asian Junior Wushu Championships in Manila in August.
The 15-year-old will then close out the competition with the nandao (southern sword) event tomorrow.
Prior to departure for the world meet, Sufi had said that he wasn't expecting any medals knowing how tough the competition will be.
"I don't expect to get any medals because this is a huge tournament but I do hope to finish inside the top-10," said Sufi.
"Training has been good but I know opponents coming from China, Iran, Malaysia, Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries will be tough," concluded Sufi.
A total of 567 athletes from 68 countries are contesting the tournament.
Initially, the duo of Lee Yingshi and Faustina Woo Wai Sii were set to represent the Sultanate in the duilian (duo sparring with broadsword and spear) event at the Malaysian capital.
However, they were forced to pull out of the competition as Lee had a clash of dates with her examinations.
Lee and Woo are also no strangers to the duilian event having won silver in the discipline during the past two editions of the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
The competition is a tune up for next month's SEA Games in Myanmar.
