Noor Shahidatun eyes SEA Games

KUALA LUMPUR: National women’s long jumper Noor Shahidatun Nadia Mohammad Zuki is determined to snag the gold medal at the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games and break the national record in the process.

Fully aware of the tall order as stiff competition is expected to come from Maria Natalia Londa of Indonesia and Vietnam’s Bui Thi Thu Thao, the Bukit Jalil Sports School (BJSS) preuniversity student conceded she had to double her efforts to attain the mission.

The 20-year-old said her success in the 93rd Malaysia Open Athletics Championships at the Universiti Malaya (UM) Stadium here yesterday, would spur her to raise her performance for the SEA Games from Aug 19 to 31, next year.

“It will not be easy to clinch the SEA Games gold but as an athlete, I will do my best. I am targeting a distance of 6.3m, to crack the national record (6.29m). To meet the target, I will use the waiting period for registration into a public university next September to focus on training for the SEA Games after finishing my current studies this month,” she told Bernama after the prize presentation ceremony here yesterday.

Noor Shahidatun, representing Kedah in the Malaysia Open took the long jump gold in 5.95m yesterday, which fell short of her earlier jumps of 6.11m in 2011 and 6.10m for the gold medal at the Sarawak Sukma Games in July.

The silver went to Nurul Fatimatul Zahra Awang of Terengganu with a jump of 5.53m, while Johor’s Mahira Hanis Ishak who leapt 5.33m took the bronze medal.

National record holder, Noor Amira Mohammad Nafiah did not compete due to injury.

Meanwhile, another national athlete, Elena Goh Ling Yin who collected the gold medal in the women’s 10,000m walk by clocking 53:41.63s, was not happy with her time despite competing in the distance for the first time.

“I could not go under 51 minutes so I hope to improve after this. I had participated in 20,000m but this is my first attempt at 10,000m as the event will be competed for the first time in the KL SEA Games. I am still recovering from an injury sustained at the Singapore SEA Games, and I hope to do better by then,” said the UM Sports Management degree student who represents Kuala Lumpur.

Pua Ling En of Johor took the silver in 54:49.69s while the bronze went to Nurul Alya Haziqah Kamaruzaman of Kelantan who finished in 55:37.08s.

In the men’s 5,000m race event, K. Prabudass of the Malaysian Armed Forces (ATM) won the gold medal with a time of 15:24.64s after being closely challenged by 10,000m champion, R Thevan of Negeri Sembilan who was finished just two seconds behind, in 15:26.73s. — Bernama