| Khairil Hassan |
FIVE taekwondo athletes and officials, three silat officials and an athlete, and two sailing athlete and an official returned from the 19th Malaysia Games (SUKMA) 2018 in Perak, Malaysia.
Siblings Hyde Nachman bin Hijum and Hyde Nathania binti Hijum, bronze medallists for the Mixed Pair Poomsae in the Taekwondo event, returned to a heroes’ welcome yesterday afternoon.
The Hyde siblings, who won bronze last year, did it again this year.
Present at the Arrival Hall of the Brunei International Airport to welcome and congratulate the athletes, as well as adorn the ‘sash’ on the medallists, was Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports Major General (Rtd) Dato Paduka Seri Awang Haji Aminuddin Ihsan bin Pehin Orang Kaya Saiful Mulok Dato Seri Paduka Haji Abidin.
Also present were Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports Datin Paduka Dr Hajah Norlila binti Dato Paduka Haji Abdul Jalil, Acting Director of Youth and Sports Mariam binti Ulat and senior officials from the ministry.
Hyde Nathania told the Weekend Bulletin that this is her last SUKMA due to the age limit.
She said, “I feel happy and satisfied with my results. Although I admit that we made a few mistakes in our Individual Poomsae, we managed to get through into our Mixed Pair Poomsae and managed to get bronze overall.
“We trained 14 times a week. I think we prepared more compared to our last SUKMA and I’m satisfied with the results.”
Her younger brother Hyde Nachman said that he will be training more, especially without her sister as his partner for the Mixed Pair Poomsae.
He said, “Our biggest challenge came from Selangor and Sarawak, as they are Malaysia’s national athletes and have more experience.
“My target for the next SUKMA is to get better results and try my best to bring back silver or gold.”