Khairul fails to progress

KHAIRUL Hafiz Jantan (pic ) is in a mad dash from Poland to Kuching to make it for the Malaysia Games after seeing his World Under-20 Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland come to a tame end on Wednesday.

The sprinter, who celebrates his 18th birthday today, trailed in last of eight runners in his 100m semi-final race after clocking a rather pedestrian 10.58 seconds.

It was not only slower than the 10.44s time he posted in the preliminary round on Tuesday, but also nowhere near his personal best of 10.36.

Nevertheless, the Malacca runner can still be pleased in getting to the semi-finals, the first Malaysian sprinter to do since Azmi Ibrahim in 1994, after having initially wanting to skip the world junior meet in favour of the Malaysia Games.

Asian 100m junior champion Khairul Hafiz will arrive in Kuching as the raging sprint favourite when the athletics events begin next week with teammate Badrul Hisyam Manap set to be his main challenger.

Unlike Khairul Hafiz, Badrul did not get to the semi-finals in Poland after posting 10.66s and has struggled to recapture the form which saw him run 10.33s at the Pahang Open earlier this year.

The sprinters’ coach Poad Kassim acknowledged they still have weaknesses to overcome but with youth on their side, they can only get better in the years to come.

“Khairul met the target we set for him by reaching the semi-finals but there are certain areas he can still improve on,” said Poad, with Khairul Hafiz notably fading halfway through his semi-final race on Wednesday despite shooting out of the blocks well. By Devinder Singh