Brunei's Local News - Brudirect.com

Bandar Seri Begawan - This year will see the largest number of athletes participating in the Brunei Indonesia Malaysia Philippines-East Asian Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) Friendship Games with some 876 athletes including sports officials taking part in the games from Nov 28-30.

This was noted by Pengiran Sabri bin Pengiran Haji Mohamad, the Acting Director of Youth and Sports in a press conference held yesterday at the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports.

Pg Sabri concluded that Brunei's contingent, which will be divided into two teams, Team A and Team B will consist of 67 athletes in Team A and 56 athletes in Team B.

Other countries such as Malaysia will send contingents from Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan, Philippines will send contingents from Mindanao and Palawan, while a number of provinces from Indonesia will take part including those from East Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, South Sulawesi,

Central Sulawesi, Papua and Western Papua.

It was also noted that athletes from Australia Northern Territory will also participate as guest competitors, however, medals won by the contingent will not be counted in the games.

The seven games to be contested are athletics, swimming, futsal, badminton, tennis, sepak takraw and silat.

There will be 76 gold, 76 silver and 78 bronze medals up for grabs and the theme of the games is 'Cooperation Through Sports'.

Athletics will be held at the Balapan Track and Fields, Berakas, swimming at the Hassanal Bolkiah Aquatic Pool, futsal at the Multipurpose Hall at the stadium, badminton at the Indoor Stadium, sepak takraw at the Sg Kabun Sports Complex, tennis at the Hassanal Bolkiah Stadium Tennis Centre and silat will be held at the Youth Centre in, BSB.

Meanwhile, youth exchange programmes, as side activities, will be held for some 70 youths from Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines from Nov 24-30.

Other activities during the BIMP-EAGA Friendship Games will be a sports seminar at the Lecture Hall of the Hassanal Bolkiah National Stadium. The seminar is expected to be attended by some 100 participants, and is not only open to BIMP-EAGA member countries but also ministries, departments, higher learning institutions, schools, sports associations and the private sector.

The seminar will be held free of charge and will have two topics - Food and Nutrition for Athletes and Sports Management.

Sports food will be presented by Dyg Norasmaini bte Haji Mat Yassin from the Ministry of Health and Sports Management will be presented by Pg Metussin bin Pg Haji Matassan, Secretary-General of BATA.

A golf competition will also be held for VIPs on Nov 29 at the Golf and Country Club Jerudong.

Pg Sabri noted that this year will see something new to be held for the first time, which is the BIMP-EAGA exhibition/gallery organised by the Museums Department.

The exhibition will be held from Nov 25 to Dec 9 at the Indoor Stadium, Hassanal Bolkiah National Stadium.

A seminar on anti-doping will also be held at Orchid Garden Hotel from Nov 24-25.

A flag raising ceremony will be held at the Pedestrian Mall, Hassanal Bolkiah Sports Complex and will be attended by Dato Paduka Haji Jemat bin Haji Ampal, Permanent Secretary of Culture, Youth and Sports.

The official opening ceremony of the 6th BIMP-EAGA Friendship Games will be held on Friday, Nov 28 at the Indoor Stadium by Pehin Dato Dr Awang Haji Ahmad bin Haji Jumat, the Minister of Culture Youth and Sports while the closing ceremony will be held on Sunday, Nov 30 at the same venue by Dato Paduka Awang Haji Hamdillah bin Haji Abd Wahab, Deputy Minister of Industry and Primary Resources. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin