Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
MOHD Fakhri Ismail is through to the final of the men’s 100-metre event at the 6th Brunei Open Track and Field Championships after placing third in semi-final 1 yesterday.
The 2016 Rio Olympian, competing under Brunei-Muara, crossed the line with a time of 10.78s at the Tutong Sports Complex.
KSL Wickramasinghe of Sri Lanka won the race on 10.68s while Sabah’s Eddie Edward Jr followed in second spot 0.05s behind.
Mohammad Safazzuan of Axis PJ (Malaysia) was the other qualifier after finishing fourth on 11.29s.
Fakhri had earlier won Heat 1 with a time of 11s, short of his national record of 10.59s which he set at the 28th SEA Games in June 2015.
The 26-year-old was satisfied with his performance despite having aimed for a new personal best.
“It’s still a good time since this is the first competition of the year” said Fakhri in an interview with BruSports yesterday.
“Hopefully tomorrow (Sunday) I’ll be able to put in an even better time,” he added.
On the other hand, Kuala Belait’s Md Faaizul Abdullah won semi-final 2 after crossing the line on 10.95s.
The Brunei-Muara duo of Abd Rahim Abdullah and Mohd Asy Syafi’e Md Bohari followed closely behind 0.03s and 0.07s back respectively.
Nepal’s Yam Sajan Sunar was fourth clocking 11.11s to complete the eight-competitor final, which is scheduled for 3.45pm today.
The competition continues today at 9am with the last event to be contested at 9.15pm
