GOLD COAST, April 13 — The men’s 4x100m quartet have qualified for the final in the 2018 Gold Coast Games Commonwealth, a first for Malaysia in the history of the Games.
The team made up of Southeast Asia’s sprint king Khairul Hafiz Jantan, Badrul Hisyam Abdul Manap, Jonathan Nyepa and Nixson Kennedy clocked the seventh fastest time of 39.39s in the two qualifying heats at the Carrara Sports and Leisure Centre here today.
In the final tomorrow, they will be up against England who did 38.15s, Jamaica (38.44s), Nigeria (38.52s), South Africa (38.71s), Australia (38.78s), Barbados (38.95s) and Sri Lanka (39.47s).
National coach for sprint events Mohd Poad Kassim said he was proud of their performance although they fell shy of the national record of 39.27s set at the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games last year.
“Finally we created history in Gold Coast by making it to the final in the men’s 4x100m. Our target now is the break the national record,” he told reporters after the heats. — Bernama
