Kuala Lumpur, April 19 (VNA) - The Malaysian Body Building Federation (MBBF) is having high hopes on Mohd Syarul Azman Mahen Abdullah for a gold medal at the upcoming 31st Southeast Asian Games to be hosted by Vietnam from May 12 to 23.

Mohd Syarul, who is fondly known as Mike, will compete in the men’s athletics physique and mixed pair events. He was a four-time consecutive world champion from 2016 in the athletics physique category.

At a press conference on April 18, Indonesian national bodybuilding assistant coach Riduan Anan said he believes that Mike would be able to do his best, although he will face stiff competition from Vietnamese and Thai bodybuilders in the open category.

Apart from the one-gold target, the MBBF is also eyeing two silver and three bronze medals from the biennial sporting event, which will see the return of bodybuilding after it was last contested at the 2013 edition in Myanmar./.