SPRINTERS Zabidi Ghazali and Siti Fatima Mohamad built on their Malaysia Games victories by winning the men's and women's 100m respectively at the Malaysian Pre-Olympic Championships at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil yesterday.

Johor's Siti Fatima stormed to the women's 100m title in a personal best of 11.80 seconds to leave Singapore's Amanda Choo (12.18) and Baljeet Kaur Purba (12.23) trailing in her wake.

"I'm not surprised with the time as I feel I can still go faster. I've won all the local races I ran in this year but if I'm to improve further I have to be running overseas.

"That is the only way I'm going to be able to get close to and break the national record (G. Shanti's 11.50)," said Siti Fatima, whose previous best was 11.82 at the Malaysia Games in Kuala Terengganu last month.

Siti Fatima's win was the highlight of the first day of the two-day meet where performance levels were far from satisfactory despite the presence of some 30 foreign athletes from eight countries.
Terengganu's Zabidi surged towards the finish first after trailing from the start to win the men's 100m sprint in 10.65 seconds with Singapore duo Poh Seng Song (10.70) and Amiruddin Jawal (10.76) finishing second and third respectively.

Former Sea Games double sprint champion Nazmizan Mohamad, who announced his intention to retire from the track after next year's Sea Games, was fifth in 10.92s.

Yap Jeng Tzan of Negri Sembilan, who re-wrote the national record in the women's discus three times this year, saw her record-breaking run in the event end but still won with a throw of 43.54m with Pahang's Siti Shahidah Abdullah (38.96) and Sabah's Asrenny Asik (36.41) taking silver and bronze.

Johor's Wong Boon Syian won the women's high jump with a 1.70m clearance over her only rival, Kelantan's Wan Sutika Wan Shukri (1.55).

Zafril Zuslaini of Terengganu repeated his Malaysia Games win in the men's 400m hurdles in 53.34s while Johor's Khoo Woan Chern won the women's equivalent in 1:02.03s.

Pahang's K. Ganthimanthi won the women's 800m in 2:18.69 but Sarawak's Jironi Riduan ran out of steam after leading most of the men's 800m race to finish third in 1:54.21 behind Taiwan's Chen Fu Pin (1:53.45) and Liao Ping Wei (1:54.21).

Other winners included Sarawak's Peter Agan Lugun in the men's javelin (64.27m), Negri's Ng Gha Yee in the women's triple jump (11.77m) and Siti Nurul Ain Abdul Rahim, also of Negri, in the women's shot put (12.32m).