Hj Yusof Mohamad throws the boule during their men's triples match against Thailand at the Petanque Sports Ground in Naypyidaw yesterday. BT/ Yee Chun Leong
It was a campaign to forget for the national petanque team in the men's triples event at the 27th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Naypyidaw.
The team of Mohamad Zunaidi Hj Ali, Haminudin Hj Abdul Hamid and Hj Yusof Mohamad finished at the bottom of the seven-country table after losing all of their matches in the round-robin format yesterday.
Each match was contested in a timeframe of one hour and 15 minutes unless a team reached 13 points first.
Brunei started out with an 8-4 loss to hosts Myanmar in their opener at the Petanque Sports Ground before falling 13-3 to Cambodia in their second match.
The squad lost 13-8 to Thailand in their third game followed by a 10-6 defeat at the hands of Laos.
Vietnam proved to be on another level after finishing off the Sultanate 13-0 in the final match.
Hj Yusof felt that it was their lack of experience compared to their opponents that led to their downfall at the biennial Games.
"We tried our best to put up a good fight. Our opponents have been playing together for five years or more as opposed to us training together for about a year," Hj Yusof told The Brunei Times yesterday.
"Most of them have competed at huge events like the World Cup or Asian Games level. We still have a lot of work to do as petanque in Brunei requires more exposure and experience," he said.
The Bruneian added that the cold weather as well as the familiarity of the venue played a factor in their performance as well.
"It was cold here and we weren't prepared for that. We normally play out in the hot sun and it was quite different here," explained Hj Yusof.
"But regardless this has been a good experience for us to learn from," he concluded.
The top four teams will contest in the semi-finals today.
Vietnam, Laos and Thailand advanced into the next round with four wins each while Malaysia join them as the next team with three wins to their name.
