Twenty athletes qualify for SEA Games
KUALA LUMPUR: Twenty national athletics athletes in 13 events have surpassed the qualifications to the 2019 Philippines’ SEA Games from Nov 30 to Dec 11.
Malaysian Athletics Federation (MAF) president Datuk Karim Ibrahim said that, in the effort to defend the eight gold medals won by Malaysia when hosting the 2017 edition, MAF would draw up suitable training programmes.
“To defend the gold, we must start by gathering the athletes, conducting selection, placing them according to the disciplines and scheduling them for training and competitions. We will only be sending their names to the Selection Committee at the end of June.
‘’After merely winning three gold medals at the 2015 SEA Games in Singapore, our athletes rose to win eight gold medals at the 2017 edition. Now, we have to work hard to at least retain the number of gold medals,’’ he told Bernama.
According to MAF, among the athletes who had qualified to Manila were 2017 SEA Games Sprint King Khairul Hafiz Jantan, Jonathan Nyepa, Muhammad Aqil Yasmin and Muhammad Zulfiqar Ismail who had surpassed the time of 10.43 seconds (s) in the men’s 100 metres (m) event.
For the men’s 200m event, the new national record holder, Russel Alexander Nasir Taib, Jonathan and the world’s fastest youth, Muhammad Azeem Mohd Fahmi had exceeded the time of 21.26s.
National sprint queen, Zaidatul Husniah Zulkifli (women’s 100m) and triple jump athlete, R. Kirthana also made it.
2017 SEA Games gold medalists, Rayzam Shah Wan Sofian (110m hurdles), Nauraj Singh Randhawa (high jump), Muhammad Hakimi Ismail (triple jump), Muhammad Irfan Shamshuddin (throwing the discuss), Jackie Wong Siew Cheer and Grace Wong Xiu Mei (hammer throw) also qualified.
Also qualified were K. Prabudass (5,000m), Lee Hup Wei (high jump), Tan Huong Leong, Muhaizar Mohamad (marathon), Iskandar Alwi (pole vault) and Muhammad Khairil Harith Harun (20 km big walk).
Big walk athlete, Elena Goh, who won the gold medal for big walk in the 10 km event, was the only gold medal winner in the previous edition, who had not not passed the qualification condition. - Bernama