Brunei Olympian Maziah
Mahusin being interviewed by a
member of the foreign media
during the 2012 London Olympic
Games on Tuesday.Picture:
Courtesy of Haji Mohd Zamri
bin Dato Paduka Haji Hamdani

Maziah Mahusin is not wasting the opportunity to improve herself.

Brunei's campaign at the London Olympics came to an end last Saturday but the duo of Maziah and Ak Hafiy Tajuddin Pg Rositi are continuing their training regime at the Olympic Park.

The Sultanate's first female athlete at the Games knows that there is no time to waste as this is just the beginning and she is already looking forward to more competitions in the near future.

"We must continue training and there is no time to rest. We need to be prepared for any other competitions including the PSK (National Sports Festival in September)," Maziah told The Brunei Times yesterday.

"We have learned quite a lot of new things including different drills and techniques from other countries as well," she said.

Besides training, she is trying to get the most out of the other athletes by communicating and sharing their experiences.

The 19-year-old is also one of the more popular figures at the July 27 Aug 12 multi-sport event, considering the amount of media attention she gets.

"We try to share our experiences with others but not a lot though because most of them cannot speak English. I managed to talk to the Palestinian (Woroud Sawalha, 800metres) and share our stories," said Maziah, who crossed the line with a new national record of 59.28 seconds in the 400-metre event last Friday.

"Overall it is a great experience and it is good. It is simply awesome. It can be quite tiring though because there is a lot of them (media)," she added.

Meanwhile, national swimmer Anderson Lim Chee Wei (pic) has been selected to carry the flag during the Games' closing ceremony.

The 16-year-old feels honoured to be chosen and he is also looking to get better in the near future.

"I feel excited and happy to be given this opportunity. When I go back, I will be swimming short course yards and my goal is to swim at the Short Course World Championships in Istanbul at the end of this year," said Lim.

He is set to return to Jacksonville, Florida in the United States after the Olympics.

Brunei's first Olympic swimmer broke the national record in the 200m freestyle event with a time of 2:02.26 on July 29. The previous time was also his best of 2:05.19.

Both Lim and Maziah were recipients of the Olympic Scholarships last September.

In addition, according to chef de mission Hj Mohd Zamri Dato Paduka Hj Hamdani, both received 'A gift of Quilts' by representatives from the UK as a sign of friendship and peace on Wednesday.

Ak Hafiy concluded Brunei's campaign at the Olympics when he finished his 400m event with a time of 48.67s to record a new personal best last Saturday.

His previous best was 49.23s which he set at the 2012 Taiwan Open Athletics Championships in May.

It was a successful campaign for Brunei with all athletes achieving their targets recording new best times considering that the country was only competing via Universality Places.

The results also showed the credibility of the Brunei National Selection Committee.

The athlete are expected to depart London on Monday.

Courtesy from Brunei Times