COACH Poad Kassim has only one more place for a speed demon in the 4 x 100m men’s relay Sea Games squad.
It will be either between sprinters Muhammad Haiqal Hanafi or Nixson Kennedy.
Poad will make his decision based on one training session and one analysis by the National Sports Institute (NSI) on Monday.
The other three places in the relay squad have been booked by Khairul Hafiz Jantan, Jonathan Nyepa and Badrul Hisyam Abdul Manap.
“We will have a training session for the 4x100m runners and from there we will evaluate their performances and we will also see the results of NSI’s analysis,” said Poad.
“They record every run the athlete takes and we will assess who is qualified.”
At the Vietnam Open recently, Haiqal, Badrul Hisyam, Jonathan and Khairul set a new national record of 39.26s.
Poad said the analysis team, led by NSI’s sports performance department chief, Jad Adrian Washif, will help the track team perform better.
In regard to the national athletics team being denied usage of the National Stadium, Bukit Jalil for training purposes, Khairul said it is not an issue as they had faced this many times before, especially during overseas competitions.
“The exterior of the track at Bukit Jalil is quite soft but the inside is quite hard but to me, it is suitable for a consistent timing,” said Khairul,
“I don’t have any issues if we don’t get to practise there because when we’re overseas, the tracks are different and requires us to adapt ourselves before competition.”
Translated from Berita Harian