KUALA LUMPUR – The 2023 SEA Games men’s 400 metres (m) champion Umar Osman aims to renew his national record at the Asian Athletics Championships in Pattaya, Thailand, in the middle of this month.
Umar, 20, said for the target, he is now actively training with his coach Simon Lau at the Singapore Sports School as there is a semester break at Politeknik Ibrahim Sultan, Pasir Gudang, Johor.
According to the Johor Baru-born runner who is in the Johor Malaysia Games (Sukma) team, he is still undergoing a training programme with Simon, even though he has taken up a coaching post at Sport Singapore.
“My target in Pattaya is to improve my personal best (which is also a national record).
“If I can’t improve the record, I want to at least record a similar time so that I can maintain my performance,” he said.
The Asian Athletics Championships in Pattaya, which is a qualifier for the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, is scheduled for five days, starting July 12.
At the Cambodian SEA Games in Phnom Penh, in May, Umar created a sensation by winning gold in the men’s 400m event and broke the 22-year-old national record with a time of 46.34 seconds (s).
The success erased the record of 46.41s held by Mohd Zaiful Zainal Abidin clocked at the 2001 Asian Junior Athletics Championships in Brunei.
The industrial design diploma student also helped the national team win bronze in the men’s 4x400m event along with Muhammad Firdaus Zemi, Ruslem Zikry Putra Roseli and S. Tharshan in Cambodia.
Asked if he had any intention of joining sprinter Muhammad Azeem Mohd Fahmi and women’s 400m runner Shereen Samson Vallabouy in training in the United States, Umar said the matter has not been decided.
“I am still following the training programme under coach Simon for now.
“I hope the results of this training can be seen in Pattaya in the near future, before competing in the World University Games (in China starting July 28).
“The decision on whether I travel abroad or remain training here depends on my parents and coaches,” he said. – Bernama, July 2, 2023
