Brunei's Maziah Mahusin during an earlier training session. Maziah will be one of the athletes representing Brunei at the 89th Malaysia Open Athletics Championships in Kuala Lumpur. Picture: Bt file
Six athletes will fly the flag for Brunei at the 89th Malaysia Open Athletics Championships in Kuala Lumpur.
The duo of 2012 London Olympians Ak Hafiy Tajuddin Pg Rositi (pic) and Maziah Mahusin will take part in their respective 400-metre events.
On the other hand, Abdul Haqim Hj Yahya will participate in the high jump event while Md Izzat Hj Abdul Majid in the triple jump event.
Nurhidayatullah Johari will sprint in the 100m event while Nuryizyenny Muslim will go the distance in the 1500m at the Oct 19-20 tournament.
The two-day competition at the University of Malaya's Sports Arena is part of the training programme for Ak Hafiy, Maziah and Abdul Haqim in preparations for the 27th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Myanmar in December.
National jumping coach Kameni Joseph had previously said that he won't be surprised should Abdul Haqim be able to set a new national record considering that he is not far off.
Abdul Haqim is jumping at 2.0m and is only 0.04 off the mark held by Demigo Kapal.
However, the high jumper knows his target and is hoping that he will be able to do well.
"For now my aim is breaking the national record and also my personal best," said Abdul Haqim in an interview with The Brunei Times yesterday.
"But I'm not sure yet because I haven't been jumping for more than two months now with the last competition in June. So we will see how it goes," he added.
National athletics coach Isidro del Prado had previously said that he is hoping for his charges to maintain their times for the tournament.
"Both of them are continuing with their training and I want them to maintain their times," said del Prado.
"But improving on their personal bests and producing a better time would be the best.
"They are getting better and should be at peak performance for the SEA Games," continued the Filipino.
The best times for Ak Hafiy and Maziah were those recorded at the London Olympics.
Ak Hafiy's personal best at 48.67 seconds while Maziah ran her first ever sub-60s then with a time of 59.28s.
