KUALA LUMPUR: Olympian Azreen Nabila Alias faces an uphill task to qualify for the women's 100m in the Phnom Penh Sea Games from May 5-17.
The Terengganu-born athlete has not been training regularly since her contract with the national team was not extended at the end of last June.
Making things difficult is that she has to train on her own as she does not have a coach. The contract of her previous coach, M. Balamurugan, who was the national sprints coach, was also not extended since last June.
The Malaysian Track and Field championships in Bukit Jalil on Feb 11-12 is the last competition to qualify for Sea Games.
The Sea Games women's 100m qualifying time is 11.66. Last year, Azreen contracted Covid in March and she also suffered asthma just before the Sea Games in May. She raced in Hanoi and clocked 11.99 in the 100m final and finished seventh.
Azreen also won bronze in the women's 4x100m together with Zaidatul Husniah Zulkifli, Nor Siti Adi and S. Komalam Shally. The quartet clocked 45.32.
Azreen, who clocked a personal best of 11.77 in the 100m heats in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, last competed in the 100m at the Asean University Games in Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand last July.
Azreen, who is pursuing a degree in Mass Communication at Universiti Putra Malaysia, clocked 11.88 to win gold in the Asean University Games (AUG).
The 22-year-old Azreen admitted that she is doubtful of making the cut for the Sea Games in May.
"I am not even sure whether I will be able to dip below 12 seconds in the competition next month (Feb 11-12) as I have not competed in any 100m event since the AUG.
"I have also not been training regularly as I don't even have a coach since I was dropped from the national training programme. I just followed the training programme given to me by coach Balamurugan.
"It is not easy to train on your own as you are not able to gauge your own performance. But I have faith in God and will still try my best to clock a decent time in the 100m to qualify for my third Sea Games," said Azreen, who made her Sea Games debut in 2019 in Manila where she won bronze in the mixed 4x100m with Jonathan Nyepa, Zaidatul Husniah and Nixson Kennedy. The quartet clocked 42.40s.