JAKARTA, Aug 25 — South-east Asia’s sprint king Khairul Hafiz Jantan led the lineup of national sprinters to the semi-finals of the 100 metres sprint event at the 2018 Asian Games Jakarta-Palembang in the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium here today.

Khairul Hafiz, who holds the national record of 10.18 seconds, finished third in the third heat of the first round after he clocked 10.47s behind world junior champion from Indonesia, Lalu Muhammad Zohri (10.27s) and China’s sprinter Xu Zhouzheng (10.40s).

Khairul Hafiz, when met by reporters, said today’s mark was for him to qualify for the next round and he was optimistic of displaying a more energetic sprint in the semi-finals scheduled tomorrow.

“My preparations here (Jakarta) are not so good as I was only allowed to test the starting block twice and this is my first time running in a stadium full of supporters, so maybe it will have an impact on my performance.

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“But I am definitely satisfied with my sprint today to ensure I qualified to the semi-finals, so I am more ready after this to give my best,” he said when met by the Malaysian media here today.

Meanwhile another national sprinter Jonathan Nyepa clocked 10.43s in the fourth heat to be in second spot behind China’s sprinter, Su Bingtian who clocked 10.27s while Taiwanese sprinter, Weihsu Wang was at third spot (10.55s).

Also, in the semi-finals are national women’s sprinter Zaidatul Husniah Zulkifli, who finished the third heat with a third spot, clocking 11.59s while in the top spot was Chinese sprinter Yongli Wei (11.32s) and Hajar Alkhaldi from Bahrain in the third spot (11.35s). — Bernama

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