Aqil and Azreen blaze the track
Muhammad Aqil Yasmin and Azreen Nabila Alias from Terengganu emerged as king and queen of sprints in the Malaysia Games yesterday.
Aqil clocked 10.39s to beat Negri Sembilan’s Muhammad Haiqal Hanafi (10.43s) and Terengganu’s Muhammad Zulfiqar Ismail (10.46s).
Aqil also bettered his personal best of 10.48s set during the Games in Sarawak, two years ago.
“I am very grateful that I managed to improve my personal record. The training programme prepared by my coach, Simon Lau has achieved a fruitful result and I followed all of his advice.
“He (Lau) advised me to stay focused,” he told Bernama after winning the event.
Azreen broke a 10-year-old record en route to the women’s 100m gold.
Azreen erased Siti Fatima Mohamad’s 11.82s record, set in 2008 in Terengganu, with a new mark of 11.81s.
Azreen outran two Sabah sprinters, Chelsea Cassiopea Evali Bopulas (12.17s) and Ikma Syaffiera Duris (12.28s), who settled for silver and bronze respectively.
Azreen said the presence of her mother, Khatijah Ali, inspired her to win the race.
“I improved on my achievement of two years ago where I only won the silver medal. I didn’t expect to break the Games’ record. I had targeted gold but not to break the record,” she said.
Azreen, who was selected as one of the four national 4x100m relay runners for the 2017 Sea Games, is coached by national coach M Balamurugan.