100m quartet fail to finish race after dropping baton

KUALA LUMPUR: The 4x100m men’s quartet bound for the Commonwealth Games had a disappointing outing in the Perak All Comers Athletics Championships in Lumut.

Nixson Kennedy, Jonathan Nyepa, Badrul Hisyam Abdul Manap and Khairul Hafiz Jantan failed to finish the race yesterday after second runner Jonathan dropped the baton before he could pass it to Badrul.

National coach Mohd Poad Mohd Kassim said the Perak All Comers meet was the last competition for the relay runners before the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, from April 4-15.

“But it was unfortunate that Jonathan dropped the baton and did not finish the race. It is a lesson to the relay runners that they have to be extra careful when changing the baton.

“We will now focus more on the changing of baton in training as I want the quartet to set a new national record in Gold Coast,” said Poad.

The Malaysian quartet of Mohd Haiqal Hanafi, Nixson, Jonathan and Badrul clocked a national record of 39.27 in the final to finish fourth in the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games last August.

Their effort erased the previous mark of 39.62 set by the quartet of Haiqal, Jonathan, Badrul and Khairul at the Vietnam Open last July.

Nurul Alyahaziqah Kamarazaman clocked a personal best of 25:15.78 to break her own 5,000m walk meet record by more than one minute and 49 seconds en route to the gold medal.