Maziah Mahusin wasted her second chance yesterday closing her chapter at the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Singapore by clocking 1:10.56 in the Girls' 400-metre hurdles final B race at Bishan Stadium. The Sultanate's sole athletics representative's result placed her last of eight athletes in the race.

It also means that Maziah fell short of bettering her personal best.

The 17-year-old hurdler's personal best is 1:08.32, which she clocked during the YOG trials in March.

The current national record stands at 1:06.00 which was set by Marsita Kamal Jumat.

Maziah, who had the fastest reaction time of 0.211 seconds, was 9.43 seconds behind leader Tasabih Elsayed of Sudan (1:01.13).

Czech Republic's Nikola Rehounkova (1:01.35) and Kazakhstan's Marina Zaiko (1:01.42), second and third respectively, claimed their personal best in the race.

Gold went to France's Aurelie Chaboudez, who topped the Girls' 400m hurdles final A with a time of 58.41s. It was also the 17-year-old French athlete's personal best.

Stina Troest of Denmark also recorded her personal best time of 58.88s to claim silver. Bronze fell to Ukrainian Olena Kolesnychenko (59.25s).

Nonetheless, it was a better race for Maziah, who was disqualified during the heat last Thursday.

The former Berakas English School student clocked 1:11.52 in Heat One of the Girls' 400m hurdles, only to break International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) Rule No 168.7a.

Maziah trailed her leg below the horizontal plane of the top of the hurdle at the instant of clearance, which according to chef-de-mission Mariam Ulat was committed at the second hurdle.

Following Maziah's run yesterday, the Brunei contingent have finally concluded their campaign in the inaugural YOG.

National swim coach Eva Wong and her team's hard work should be complimented, simply because they were Brunei's best performers at the Games.

The three-week intensive training in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, proved fruitful when national swimmers Amanda Liew Jia Xin and Jeremy Joint Riong both achieved their targets.

Competing against the best of junior world-class athletes brought out the best in the duo.

The Brunei swim team, however, had a slow start in Singapore when the Sultanate's most prolific swimmer Liew only clocked 36.51s in Heat Two of the Youth Women's 50m breaststroke. She also finished last among seven contestants last Sunday.

It was Riong's turn to swim the next day and things started to pick up for Brunei.

The Katok Sixth Form Centre student timed 1:11.27 in the Youth Men's 100m butterfly. He shaved two seconds off his former best.

Riong did not disappoint his coach when he proved that the time was no fluke last Wednesday.

The national swimmer clocked 30.68s in the Youth Men's 50m butterfly event at the Singapore Sports School. His previous best was 31.78s.

If the champions propelled Riong to his best, for Liew it was the support of her family.

With the whole family encouraging her on, Liew clocked 28.25s in the 50m freestyle event to set a national record. It erased her old record of 28.64s.

It was a good outing but Brunei should not rest on their laurels the focus should now be on the next Games in 2014 in Nanjing, China.

Courtesy from Brunei Times