Irfan does it again

Shamshuddin had barely had time to reflect on his record-breaking feat when he renewed his national discus record for a second time in three days on Tuesday.

After becoming the first Southeast Asian man to throw the discus above 60 metres on Sunday, Irfan set a new mark of 61.56m at a meet in Turnov in the Czech Republic.

His latest effort bettered the 61.10m mark he registered in Halle, Germany which broke the Southeast Asian record of 59.87m held by Singapore’s James Wong since 1999.

“It was good overall,” said Irfan, 22, of his record-breaking performances. “I believe I can do better. More to come.”

Irfan’s display makes him a heavy favourite to win a third consecutive discus gold medal at the Kuala Lumpur Sea Games in August.

He could also feature among the medals at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta with his new personal best bettering the bronze medal mark of the 2014 edition in Incheon.

Meanwhile, Nazri Mustafa delivered Malaysia’s first-ever gold medal at the Asian Youth Championships which ended in Bangkok on Tuesday.

Nazri posted a personal best of 15.05m with his final effort to win the boys’ triple jump gold ahead of second-placed Huang Haq-Wen of Taiwan (14.78m).

Malaysia also won three silver medals and one bronze to improve on the twobronze haul at the inaugural meet in Doha two years ago.

National record holder Grace Wong won silver in the girls hammer with a 59.00m throw while Aiedel Saadon just missed out on gold in the boys’ 100m final when he clocked 10.80 seconds to trail India’s Gurindervir Singh by 0.03s.

Ilham Suhaimi was the other athlete to win silver after timing a personal best 48.16s in the boys’ 400m final which was won by Indonesia’s Ifan Anugrah Setiawan in a new meet record of 47.47.

Ngu Ing Bao won bronze in the boys’ discus with a 52.48m effort to complete a successful outing for the young Malaysian athletes. Devinder Singh