Brunei's cyclists made the
Sultanate proud as they managed
to bag two bronze medals from
the 36km cross country and the
168.5km team road race
respectively. Picture: Infofoto

Brunei finished their Malaysia Games (Sukma) campaign in Melaka with one gold and seven bronze medals after Muhammad Rafiuddin Zakaria won bronze in the 36km cross country race yesterday.

Clocking 02:20:14.00 during the event at the Recreational Forest in Ayer Keroh, it was the Sultanate's final medal in the 10-day tournament which comes to a close today.

Pahang's Mohd Hafiz Rosli won gold with 02:13:49.00 while Sabah's Nicklos Minol finished with silver after crossing the line at 02:17:28.00.

It marks a change in fortune for the national team in the venue which also hosted the 15th Asian Mountain Bike Championships and inaugural Asian Junior Mountain Bike Championships last November where Brunei returned empty-handed.

For Muhammad Rafiuddin, the medal caps off a string of encouraging performances after finishing as the country's best performer during the 66km criterium last Sunday when he placed 20th in a field of 47 riders.

The Sultanate also won bronze through Muhammad Raihaan Abd Aziz, Abdul Hadrie Morsidi and Md Azbe Hidayatullah Zainul Ariffin in the 168.5km team road race on Monday.

The trio clocked a combined 12:35:24:00 to win bronze.

Six Bruneians competed in the race and the top three times were used to calculate the winners.

Though the country's haul wasn't close to beating their best ever Sukma outing when the country bagged one gold, five silver and five bronze medals in Negri Sembilan in 2004, it was much better than their two bronze medals outing during the last edition in Terengganu in 2008.

Meanwhile Terengganu's judo squad achieved an unexpected achievement when their judokas exceeded the target set by the state of winning three gold medals for this edition.

Following the intense four-day competition at the Batu Berendam Sports Complex, they managed to bag five gold , five silver and four bronze.

Terengganu won the five gold medals through Noor Maizura (women's below 48kg category, Nik Norbaizura (women's below 57kg), Wan Mohd Abdullah (men's below 60kg), Norsafrina Rahman (women's below 63kg) and Muhd Shaiful Arif (men's below 81kg).

The win allowed Terengganu to emerge at the top of the medal standings for judo, ahead of Johor with three gold, three silver and six bronze and hosts Melaka with three gold, two silver and three bronze.

"We are really surprised by the achievement of our athletes. Sure, we had intensive training for the exponents for over six months in anticipation of this year's Melaka Sukma," said Terengganu's chief coach, Marjan Abdullah.

Courtesy from Brunei Times