Prabudass spends own money just to set personal best in the 5,000m race

KUALA LUMPUR: K. Prabudass (pic) has shown true grit and determination in his pursuit of a SEA Games spot.

The long distance runner was down with dengue fever in January and only started training in late February.

Despite training for seven weeks, the Seremban athlete clocked a personal best of 14:37.52 to finish seventh in the 5,000m at the Nippon Sport Science University in Kenshidai, Japan on Sunday.

His previous best was 14:57.43, en route to a silver medal at the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games.

The 29-year-old, who is a lance corporal in the navy, even forked out his own money to compete in the event.

Prabudass spent RM5,000 for the flight ticket, accommodation, food and transport.

“It was worth every single sen as I bettered my personal best by close to 20 seconds,” said Prabudass.

“When I signed the athlete’s contract with the National Sports Council (NSC), they informed me that the qualifying mark for the Games has been set at 14:20.00. So there’s still some work to be done,” added Prabudass, who was hospitalised for three weeks due to dengue fever.

“I must thank coach Jean-Pierre Lautredoux who helped me in training for the last few weeks.

“I now have renewed confidence to dip below the qualifying mark and make it to the Manila SEA Games in November,” said Prabudass, whose father G. Krishnan, is a former national long distance runner and has won medals in the SEA Games during the 80s.

National middle distance runner Royson Vincent also forked out his own money to compete in Japan but the 2017 KL SEA Games bronze medallist only managed 1:52.62 in the 800m heats.

His time was slower than his personal best of 1:50.76.

Meanwhile at the Asian Athletics Championships in Doha, Muhd Irfan Shamsuddin had a poor outing in the discus as he only managed 55.18m to finish ninth on Sunday.

At the last meet in Bhubaneswar, India in 2017, Irfan bagged the silver medal with a 60.96m throw.

Sprinter Muhd Zulfiqar Ismail qualified for the 100m semi-final after clocking 10.55 to finish fourth in the heats.