The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has confirmed that Brunei is taking steps to send a female athlete to the London Olympics.

Though Brunei has regularly sent female athletes to regional and international meets, no Bruneian woman has yet to grace the Olympics, and the Sultanate has been under the IOC spotlight as a result.

But the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports and the Brunei Darussalam National Olympic Council have been working towards preparing a female athlete for this year's July 25-Aug 12 Olympics, and IOC's executive board meeting which ended in Quebec City, Canada, on Thursday, revealed that "both Qatar and Brunei have committed to sending women athletes to London".

The IOC was commenting on the issue in view of Saudi Arabia's continued resistance to its efforts to have women compete in London.

Brunei will be competing in the Olympics because of the universality places which the world governing bodies for athletics and swimming the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and International Swimming Federation (FINA) have opened to countries who have no qualified athletes.

The federations each gave Brunei one male and one female spots, but the Brunei Amateur Swimming Association (BASA) chose not to nominate any female swimmer since the country did not send any female swimmers to the 14th FINA World Swimming Championships in Shanghai, China, last July a prerequisite to swimming in London.

All signs are pointing towards Maziah Mahusin being the first Bruneian female to debut at the Olympics the 400 metres runner among the country's brightest prospects in athletics.

Maziah like national swimmer Anderson Lim Chee Wei was awarded London 2012 Olympic Scholarships last September.

Maziah and 400m runner Ak Hafiy Tajuddin Pg Rositi another Olympics hopeful are currently competing at the 2012 Taiwan Open Athletics Championships which kicked off yesterday.

Courtesy from Brunei Times