Caption: The national athletics team pose for a group photo at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium. Picture: Courtesy of Nazirul Wardy
Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
THE men’s national 4x100m relay team smashed the previous national record by 0.71 seconds at the 29th SEA Games earlier this afternoon.
The team of Md Faizul Abdullah, Md Noor Firdaus Ar-Rasyid Hj Mohd Idris, Abd Rahim Abdullah and Md Fakhri Ismail - running in that order - crossed the line fifth out of seven teams with a time of 40.21s at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium.
The old time was 40.92s set by the same lineup at the Singapore Open in late April.
It was also going to be difficult to medal the event considering the level of competition. Thailand once again defended their title with a new Games record of 38.90s.
Indonesia were second best on 39.05s while the Philippines completed the podium a further 0.06s behind.
The national athletics team were delighted with their performance.
“We never expected such a time. We were thinking at least 40.5s. We are very satisfied with our results,” said the team in an interview with BruSports News after the race.
“Even coach is very happy as our time is very near the sub 40 seconds.
“Thailand are really strong and even broke the SEA Games record. The times for this year’s even is a lot stronger than that of the previous in Singapore,” they added.
The team are hoping to continue improving, to run under 40 seconds, and are targeting a spot at the Asian Games in Indonesia next year.
It was overakk a successful outing for the national athletics team at the biennial Games, despite not finishing on the podium, as Firdaus advanced to the final of the men’s 200m event on Wednesday after crossing the line second with a new national record of 21.39s.
The result bettered his previous best of 21.64s set at the Malaysia Open in October last year.
On Tuesday, Fakhri just missed out of the 100m final after finishing fifth on 10.75s in semi-final 2.
Syafi’e also competed in the event and notched a time of 11.06s in semi-final 1.
