KUALA LUMPUR − A little-known youngster from Sabah, Mohamad Eizlan Dahalan, hit new heights today when he beat Olympian Lee Hup Wei en route to winning the high jump gold at the National Athletics Championships 2021.
The 22-year-old cleared 2.14m at the National Sports Council Mini Stadium, as did fellow Sabahan Farell Glenn Felix Jurus.
Eizlan, who surpassed his previous personal best of 2.13m, which he achieved at the recent Sabah trials for the Malaysia Games (Sukma), took the gold medal on countback.
Veteran Hup Wei, 34, who is likely to retire next year, had to be satisfied with the bronze medal after clearing 2.10m, which is way below his personal best of 2.29m.
Eizlan − a final year anthropology and sociology student in Universiti Malaysia Sabah − hopes to maintain his consistency and momentum so that he can further improve on his personal best score as he’s just 0.01m away from the SEA Games qualifying mark (2.15m).
“I hope to raise my performance level next year, perhaps to 2.17m for a start. InsyaAllah, I can be the replacement for our elite jumpers (like Hup Wei and Nauraj Singh) one day. For now − going by my personal best − I’m still quite a distance away.
“But I intend to use that as my motivation, besides hoping to get tips and help from them (Hup Wei and Nauraj Singh) as they are both vastly experienced,” he said after the prize-giving ceremony.
In women’s discus, Sarawak’s Queenie Ting Kung Ni was a tad disappointed after recording a distance of 49.11m today − falling short of her national mark of 50.67m, which she set during the Malaysian track and field trials last month.
“I was aiming to break my national record but the cold weather affected my performance slightly today. After this, I may compete in the Malaysia Closed Championships... as we don’t know about next year’s calendar yet,” said Queenie.
Johor’s Nur Atiqah Sufiah Md Hanizam was second (39.79m) and Sarawak’s Clarence Syree Jeffrey was third (34.71m). – Bernama, December 19. 2021
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