SINGAPORE, June 8 — The national men’s 4x100m quartet of Harith Ammar Mohd Sobri, Badrul Hisyam Abdul Manap, Eddie Edward Junior and Dinesh Krishan are confident of delivering a gold medal at the SEA Games in Singapore.

The confidence is based on the thorough preparations the national quartet had undergone since early this year, including a two-month stint in Australia.

Despite making his debut, Harith Ammar said he would not be overawed by the occasion despite the intense competition expected from other competitors in the race.

“I feel we have a stronger line-up this time,” he told Bernama today.

The Myanmar SEA Games men’s 200m silver medallist said he expected the challenge to come from the host country, Indonesia and Thailand.

Sharing the same sentiment was Eddie Edward Junior, who said he wanted to prove something in Singapore.

“My personal best time in 100 metres is 10.62 seconds during a training session in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, recently and I hope we can go under 40 seconds to grab the gold medal,” he said.

Athletics competition will commence tomorrow at the Singapore National Stadium while the men’s 4x100m relay is scheduled on June 12.

The SEA Games record of 38.95 seconds for the event was set by a Thai quartet at the Korat SEA Games in 2007.

The last time a Malaysian quartet won a medal in the event was at the biennial games in Indonesia in 2011 when Mohammad Noor Imran A Hadi, Ambrose Jilom, Mohd Azhar Md Ismail and Mohd Ikhwan Nor took the bronze medal.

The best 4x100m relay performance by Malaysia was in the Bangkok SEA Games in 1985 when Rabuan Pit, S. Govindasamy, Nordin Jadi and Hanafiah Nasir raced to a silver medal. — Bernama