Prabudass looks good for long distance gold in Philippines SEA Games.
KUALA LUMPUR: National long distance runner K. Prabudass has emerged as a gold medal prospect at the Philippines SEA Games from Nov 30-Dec 11 after clocking a personal best in the men’s 5,000m in the second series of the Nippon Sport Science University (NSSU) meet in Kenshidai, Japan.
The Navy lance corporal clocked 14:33.10 to finish 11th on Sunday night.
His latest effort is better than the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games winning time of 14:55.15 set by Nguyen Van Lai of Vietnam.
Prabudass also bettered his previous personal best of 14:37.52 achieved in the first series of the NSSU in Kenshidai last month.
But it is still far from the national record of 14:06.84 set by M. Ramachandran in Troisdorf, Germany, in 1994.
The Seremban athlete forked out RM5,000 from his own pocket to compete in the first series in Japan but his trip for the second series was sponsored by the Malaysian Athletics Federation (MAF).
The 29-year-old Prabudass, who clocked 14:57.43 to win silver in the 2017 KL SEA Games, jumped for joy after clocking personal best times in two competitions in Japan within three weeks.
“It feels really great to improve by more than 24 seconds over my SEA Games silver medallist time in 2017,” said Prabudass.
“Japan is a good hunting ground for me and I am elated as my efforts are better than the gold medallist winning time of 14:55.15.”
Despite clocking a better time than the 2017 gold medallist, he has not qualified for the SEA Games as the National Sports Council (NSC) want him to clock 14:20 to qualify for the Games.
Prabudass wants to continue to train hard to surpass the time set by the NSC.
“With the guidance of my coach Jean-Pierre Lautredoux from France (who is based in Malaysia), I am optimistic that I can continue to improve further,” said Prabudass, who is living up to his father G. Krishnan’s expectations.
Krishnan is a SEA Games bronze medallist who holds the honour as the first Malaysian to run 5,000m in under 15 minutes.