Aqil to pit wits against Jonathan and Aravinn

KUALA LUMPUR: Muhd Aqil Yasmin has proven himself as the undisputable sprint king in the Malaysia Games (Sukma) in Ipoh last month.

Now, the 21-year-old wants to challenge national sprinters Jonathan Nyepa and G. Aravinn Thevarr in the men’s 200m at the Armed Forces Open Athletics Championships at the Navy Stadium in Lumut from Oct 3-5.

In Sukma, Aqil of Selangor clocked a personal best time of 10.39 en route to winning the 100m and broke the 200m Sukma record of 21.03 set by Khairul Hafiz Jantan at the 2016 Sarawak Sukma, by posting 21.01.

Sarawak’s Jonathan has a personal best of 21.10 clocked at the Malaysian Open in Bukit Jalil in May while the 2017 SEA Games bronze medallist Aravinn from Perak recorded his best timing of 21.07 at the 2016 Singapore Open.

Aqil has not taken a break after the Sukma to give unwavering attention in his preparation for the Armed Forces meet.

“I’ll only compete in two events – 200m and 4x100m in Lumut. The 200m is my pet event and I want to maintain the time I did in Sukma,” said Aqil, who has been trained by Selangor coach Simon Lau since 2015.

“I’m in the back-up squad and it will be really nice if I can finish ahead of national sprinters like Jonathan and Aravinn to win the gold.

“I want to feature in next year’s SEA Games in the Philippines and to achieve that, I need to consistently do well in competitions,” said Aqil, who is pursuing a diploma in Sports Science and Recreation at the Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) in Shah Alam.

Aqil added that the Armed Forces meet would also serve as a good preparation ahead of the Asean University Games in Naypyidaw in Myanmar from Dec 9-18.

“I’ve never competed in the Asean University Games and my mission is to win the 200m gold,” said Aqil.