PETALING JAYA, Nov 25 — The Malaysian Athletics Federation (MAF) is confident sprint sensation Badrul Hisyam Manap can deliver a gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta.
“He (Badrul) is the first Malaysian to dip below 10.30s and we hope he will win the sprints at the Asian Games,” said MAF president, Datuk Karim Ibrahim.
“The last time we won a gold in the Asian Games sprints was through Rabuan Pit in New Dehli 33 years ago.
“Nazmizan Muhammad then won gold at the Hanoi SEA Games in 2003.
“We have not had good sprinters for a long time and Badrul is a breath of fresh air.”
On Monday, the Malacca-born athlete, who was the defending champion in the event, recorded a time of 10.29 seconds to erase Watson Nyambek’s record of 10.30 seconds which was set at the Malaysian Open Athletics Championship in 1998.
Second place went to another national athlete, Asnawi Hashim who clocked 10.71s while Worawutsalabal of Thailand finished in 10.87s to claim third spot at the Tutong Sport Complex.
Karim said MAF will start a special programme for Badrul soon.
“We will give him a proper guidance; will sit with his coach (Poad Kassim) [sic].
“He is a gem as junior and we will work hard in all aspect to ensure we won’t lose a talent,” promised Karim, who will attend an International Association of Athletics.
“I will seek advice from the IAAF on how best to develop Badrul.
“MAF will reward Badrul with a RM5,000 incentive for breaking the 100m record. We hope to see more sprinters breaking barriers and we hope someone dips below 10.20s or even 10s soon.”
