Aqil and Azreen just too fast for the rest

SLIGHT drizzle brought good omen to Selangor’s Muhd Aqil Yasmin as he ran the race of his life to shatter the boys’ 200m Malaysia Games (Sukma) record at the Perak Stadium.

The 21-year-old sprinter blazed the track yesterday with a personal best time of 21.01 to break the Games record of 21.03 set by Khairul Hafiz Jantan of Melaka at the last Sukma in Kuching two years ago.

It completed a grand double for Aqil after winning the blue riband event with a personal best of 10.39 on Tuesday.

Aqil was happy to get it right after losing to Khairul in the 200m at the last Sukma. Then, Khairul had also broken the Games record en route to winning the gold.

“I wanted to beat him for the gold but he did not take part in the Games this time but I’m happy to erase his record,” said a beaming Aqil, who trains under coach Simon Lau.

“The 200m is my pet event and I was quite confident of a good showing.

“It feels great to win the sprint double and my next mission is to dip below 21 seconds in competitions,” said Aqil, who is pursuing a degree in sports science at the Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) in Shah Alam.

Terengganu’s Azreen Nabila Alias also sprinted to a double yesterday by setting her personal best in the girls’ 200m.

The 18-year-old Azreen, who was the silver medallist in the last Sukma, ran an excellent race to hit the tape with a time of 24.76 and improved on her previous timing of 25.45.

On Tuesday, Azreen had smashed the 100m Games record by clocking 11.81 to erase the 10-year mark of 11.82 set by Siti Fatimah Mohamed of Johor in Kuala Terengganu in 2008.

Azreen was clearly on cloud nine for winning a total of three golds. Besides the 100m and 200m victories, she also anchored her team to the 4x100m gold.

“In the 200m, Perak’s Shereen (Samson Vallabouy) was breathing down my neck in the last 50m but I managed to stay ahead,” said Azreen.

“I have one more Sukma to go and I’ll be back in Johor in two years time to rule the sprint events again,” she said.