THREE hurdlers will make a last ditch attempt at qualifying for the Beijing Olympics when they line up for the Vietnam Open in Ho Chi Minh City today.

Robani Hassan, Rayzam Shah Wan Sofian and Faiz Muhammad were thrown a lifeline by the National Sports Council, which agreed to fund their trip to Vietnam after they failed to make the grade at the Malaysian Pre-Olympic meet in Bukit Jalil on July 5-6.

This meet comes as a relief especially for Rayzam, who faltered in the Bukit Jalil race after crashing into three hurdles while Robani hopes to improve on his personal best of 13.85 seconds which he set in the same 110m hurdles race.

All three must clock 13.72s to qualify under Category B with Rayzam, who has a personal best of 13.91s, keen on rectifying his earlier error.

"It is a common thing to happen when you run over hurdles but I'm over that now and only looking forward to running my best. I'm not promising anything but I'm ready to take on this challenge," said Rayzam, 20, prior to his departure for Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday.
Two other athletes listed for Vietnam are Zafril Zuslaini in the men's 400m hurdles and Yap Jeng Tzan, the national women's discus record holder.

Meanwhile, two athletes who have qualified for Beijing were listed for a final warm-up meet prior to making their Olympic debut.

High jumper Lee Hup Wei and pole vaulter Roslinda Samsu will compete in the Singapore Open on Aug 2-3 before taking their bow at the Olympics, where the athletics programme gets underway on Aug 15.

Both athletes are currently in Europe where Hup Wei cleared 2.16m, someway below his personal best of 2.27m, at an international athletics meeting in Joensuu, Finland on Wednesday to finish fourth

The 21-year-old from Dengkil, Selangor will jump again tomorrow at the Savo Games in Lapinlahti, Finland while at the same time Roslinda resumes her Olympic preparation at a European meeting in Barcelona.

The Barcelona meet will be Rosolinda's fourth in recent weeks having achieved her year's best of 4.30m in Salamanca on July 2.

The 25-year-old from Kedah also cleared 4.25m in Andorra on June 28 and 4.15m in Madrid on July 5 although she has yet to reach the peaks of 2006 when she set the national record of 4.40m.