James Kon
National swimmer Nur Haziq bin Samil @ Ismail will be representing Brunei Darussalam at the 5th Islamic Solidarity Games in Konya, Turkey.
Chef de Mission Umi Khaltum binti Haji Abdul Karim and national swimming coach Wu Na will also be part of the Brunei contingent, which departed yesterday.
Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Nazmi bin Haji Mohamad handed over the national flag to the Chef de Mission at the Brunei International Airport before their departure.
Permanent Secretary (Sports) at the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports Pengiran Mohd Amirrizal bin Pengiran Haji Mahmud and senior officials from the ministry were also present.
Nur Haziq Samil @ Ismail will compete in the 400m and 1,500m free styles events. The national swimmer has been training in Thailand for the last four years. He was awarded with the FINA Development Scholarship for 2022.
In an interview, he said, “I am very excited to represent Brunei Darussalam. This is the first time I am competing in the Islamic Solidarity Games. I hope that I can break my personal best in the 400m freestyle and the 1500m freestyle.”
Meanwhile Wu said he wants to see how the national swimmer will fare against others at the competition.
“This will help us to better prepare in the future.”
This is Brunei Darussalam’s fourth time competing in the Islamic Solidarity Games, the last being Baku, Azerbaijan in 2017.