Khairul Hafiz eyes renewing national 100m, 200m records

PUTRAJAYA: South East Asian sprint king, Khairul Hafiz Jantan targets to renew his own national records in the 100m and 200m events next year.

He conceded there were many weaknesses he had to overcome in order to renew the national records in the two events.

The 20-year-old runner is the holder of the national records in the 100m and 200m events, in 10.18 seconds and 20.9 seconds, respectively.

‘’My personal records are not consistent this year, and like in Germany prior to this, I recorded 10.28 seconds compared to my personal record of 10.18 seconds, so there are much more that I need to improve on.

‘’If possible, I want to improve on the times by reducing the gaps (with my records) or renewing the times altogether next year,’’ he said

Khairul Hafiz, who is the ambassador for Fraser and Neave (F&N) Holdings Berhad, said this when met by Bernama after attending the 135th anniversary of the company at the IOI City Mall on Friday night.

Touching on his overall achievement this season, Khairul Hafiz admitted he was a bit disappointed after failing to achieve positive results in several championships he took part in including the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia and the Jakarta-Palembang, Indonesia Asian Games.

He said the knee injury he sustained when participating in the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games affected his running and prevented him from achieving better times.

‘’My achievement is quite poor this year especially in terms of confidence especially with my nagging hamstring injury. I am still undergoing treatment at the National Sports Institute and it is showing signs of improvement,’’ said the Melaka-born,

In a separate development, Khairul Hafiz said he was still waiting for the return of his coach, Mohd Poad Md Kassim, who was performing the umrah (minor haj), for his training schedule and on the competitions he would be taking part in next year. - Bernama