KUALA LUMPUR, April 10 — National women’s hammer thrower Grace Wong Xiu Mei smashed the national record with a 62.48m throw at the Malaysia Open Athletics Grand Prix (GP) championships at the National Sports Council (MSN) Mini Stadium in Bukit Jalil here, today.

Grace erased her own record of 60.99m created in Mokpo, South Korea, in 2017.

The Sarawak-born athlete trounced the competition, with Nurul Hidayah Lukman from Selangor finishing a distant second with 49.98m, while Eng May Xin Winnie from Kuala Lumpur (17.95m) came in third.

The 20-year-old athlete did not expect to break the national record after almost a year out of competitive action.

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Her last stint was during the 2019 SEA Games in Manila, Philippines, where she failed to defend her gold at the 2017 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur, coming in second to Mingkamon Koomphon from Thailand.

“I am determined to reclaim the gold medal at the 2021 SEA Games in Hanoi, Vietnam, at the end of this year,” she told reporters here today.

Meanwhile, Jackie Wong from Sarawak topped the men’s event with a 66.47m throw followed by Sadat Marzuqi Arjisan from Negeri Sembilan (59.94m) and Johor’s Farm Loong Deng in third place (19.53m).

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National high jump athlete, Lee Hup Wei who represented Selangor, finished second (2.05m) to Mohamad Eizlan Dahalan from Sabah (2.05m), while Johor’s Norshafiee Mohd Shah came in third (1.96m)

Mohamad Eizlan attempted the 2.07m-height and failed, however, he won gold as Hup Wei withdrew from the challenge after his shoe was torn.

Meanwhile, national paralympic ace Abdul Latif Romly from Perlis won the long jump event with a 7.40m-leap, while second place went to Luqman Hakim Mohd Ramlan from Kuala Lumpur (7.32m) and Zulkilfe Abdullah finished third (6.63m).

The women’s triple jump event was won by Kirthana Ramasamy from Perak (13.21m) followed by Nurul Ashikin Abbas, also from Perak (13.00m) and Johor athlete, Nur Fatin Najiha Mohd Aziz, who took third place (11.55m).

It was an all-sweep for the Johoreans in the men’s pole vault event as Iskandar Alwi won the gold with a 4.85m-leap, with Muhammad Naufal Sharul Azam finishing in second place (4.45m) and Aiman Suffian Bahrizal coming in third (3.55m).

Meanwhile, Wan Muhammad Fazri from Kelantan won the 800m track event beating Selangor representative Avinasher Austin who finished second, and Anas Ariffin from Kelantan in third place.

Selangor athlete Savinder Kaur Joginder Singh won first place in the women’s 800m event followed by J. Padhmaloshini from Johor and V. Shankari from Selangor.

The final day of the championships takes place tomorrow. — Bernama