Brunei netball team aims medal finish at SEA Games

FROM LEFT: Founders of Netfit Kim Green and Sarah Wall with President of BNA Lieutenant Colonel (Rtd) Hajah Wan Shahlimar binti Haji Suhaili and national netball team head coach Jane Searle at the press conference. BORNEO BULLETIN PHOTO/JAMES KON

Brunei national netball team head coach Jane Searle has expressed the team’s desire to win medal at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games in the Philippines.

“Preparations this year have been quite good. I have been in Brunei Darussalam for the last five months of training with the girls. Last year, I was here for only two and a half months before the netball championship. Hopefully, with a better preparation this year, we can get a better result,” she told a press conference yesterday.

Looking at the SEA Games, she said, “definitely, this will be one of the hardest SEA Games for netball. The host nation has put in a lot of time in the last 12 months by getting new coaches and recruiting players. I think they are strong opponents.

“Thailand has always been our main opposition and I am hoping that we can get a win. Certainly, our expectation is to win medal. I like a higher up medal but realistically if we can win against Singapore and Malaysia, it will be great as they are very tough.”

Asked on the team, she said, “They are looking very fit. We have a height disadvantage against other teams but we have implemented strategies and skills. They train very hard. But we don’t have the competitions here. We need to test ourselves. Not having competition here means that we need to travel overseas for exposure games to test ourselves.

“We pick the hardest nation to test ourselves. In my mind we are improving, we need to find out how we can perform against the best, the more we play against tougher oppositions, the more we can improve.”

Meanwhile, President of the Brunei Netball Association (BNA) Lieutenant Colonel (Rtd) Hajah Wan Shahlimar binti Haji Suhaili shared the team had undergone a series of exposure games to prepare for the SEA Games. The Royal Bees will face Netfit All Stars in their final preparation for the SEA Games.

“We are at the final preparation. The first exposure game was in Arafura Darwin, second was in Melbourne and third was in Singapore. This is our fourth and last before the SEA Games 2019.

It was revealed during the press conference that BNA is looking to organize a netball league next year.