NATIONAL sprinter and Brunei’s first female Olympian, Maziah Mahusin clinched third place in women’s 200m event at the Philippine National Open in Pasig City, Manila, yesterday.
Maziah made history when she became Brunei’s first female Olympian at the 2012 London Olympics, where she set a national record of 59.28s in the 400m. Since then Maziah switched to the 200m. In the tournament, Maziah clocked a time of 25.96s in the 200m event, 0.74s shy of the national record of 25.22s set by Alinawati Ali Bakar at the 2011 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur.
In an interview with The Brunei Times yesterday, Maziah said she was satisfied with her achievement but hoped to improve her record in her next tournament - 78th Singapore Open Track & Field Championships 2016 from April 28-29. “My timing wasn’t that good, but I was up against tough athletes from Korea who were silver medalists in last year’s South East Asian (SEA) Games,” said Maziah.
“Bringing back a bronze medal was good enough for now, but I have a long way to go for the Singapore Open,” she added. The country’s fastest man Md Fakhri Ismail also made his appearance in the annual tournament along with his fellow recipient of the Rio 2016 Olympics training scholarship by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Maizurah Abdul Rahim.
Completing the list of the four-member team was middle distant runner, Muhd Ammar Safwan Hj Zaidin, who laced up in the 400m men’s event. Md Fakhri clocked a time of 10.75s in the 100m men’s event, while Mazurah improved her personal best with the time of 27.85 in the 200m women’s event. Muhd Ammar finished fourth in the 400m men’s event with the time of 52.09s.
Organised by the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (PATAFA), the three-day annual tournament saw athletes from South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia competed for top honours.