4X100 women’s relay breaks national record

The national 4x100m women’s relay team received a massive boost ahead of the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games next month when they rewrote the national record at the 22nd Asian Athletics Championship at the Kalinga Stadium in Odisha, India, late Saturday ( early Sunday in Malaysia).

The quartet of Nurul Faizah Asma Mazlan, Sit i Fat imah Mohamad, S. Komalam Shally and Zaidatul Husniah Zulkifli clocked 45.18 seconds, slashing 0.01 seconds from the previous record set at the Thailand Open Track and Field Championships last month.

The previous record of 45.19 seconds was set by the quartet of Siti Fatimah Mohamad, S. Koma lam Sha l ly, Zaidatul Husniah Zulkif li and Shereen Samson Vallabouy.

Malaysia finished fifth place in the event in India, with Kazakhstan taking the gold (43.53 seconds), China the silver (44.50 seconds) and India the bronze medal (44.57 seconds), according to the tournament’s website, www. odisha2017.games.com

The Malaysian 4x100m men’s relay team comprising Khairul Hafiz Jantan, Badrul Hisyam Abdul Manap, Nixson Kennedy and Jonathan Nyepa also finished in fifth place, with a time 39.98 seconds.

China and Thailand clocked the same time of 39.38 seconds but the jury awarded the gold to China after the photo finish while the Hong Kong quartet took the bronze (39.53 seconds).

In other events, Lee Hup Wei finished in joint sixth place with three others out of 14 athletes in the men’s high jump after clearing 2.20m while Jackie Wong Siew Cheer set a throw range of 64.84m to finish in eighth spot out of 11 athletes in the men’s hammer throw.

Muhammad Ir fan Sh am sud din is the only medal winner for Malaysia, having won the silver in the men’s discus throw on the first day of the meet on Thursday.