Noraseela Khalid is making her comeback from injury.
FIVE national track and field athletes get another opportunity to qualify for the Olympics when the first leg of the Asian Grand Prix series begins in Bangkok today.
| Zaiful Zainal Abidin. |
But all five face significant hurdles in attempting to join Roslinda Samsu, Yuan Yufang and Lee Hup Wei at the Beijing Olympics on Aug 8-24.
Four of them - Zaiful Zainal Abidin, M. Vadivellan, Robani Hassan and Rayzam Shah Wan Sofian - need to break the national record in their respective events to qualify while the fifth, Noraseela Khalid, is making her comeback from injury after a year’s absence.
Zaiful, who has been training in Bulgaria for the past one month in a concerted effort to make it to Beijing, needs to smash his own national record of 46.41 seconds in the men’s 400 metres to have any chance of beating the qualifying mark of 45.95s.
But the closest Zaiful, 26, has come to breaking the record he set in 2001 was when he timed 46.75s in taking bronze at the Korat Sea Games last December which remains his best effort since returning from a three-year break last year.
Sea Games silver medallist Vadivellan too has to break his own national record of 3:45.70s in the men’s 1,500m which he set in Korat but the qualifying time of 3:39.00 could well be beyond his reach.
Robani and Rayzam have just as much to do as they attempt to break Nur Herman Majid’s 14-year-old national record of 13.73s in the men’s 110m hurdles which would qualify them for Beijing as the qualifying time is 13.72s.
“I am trying very hard to qualify for the Olympics and I know I need to break the record to do so. I still have three more tries,” said Rayzam, 20, after winning the Malaysia Games gold medal in Kuala Terengganu on June 7 in referring to the three legs of the Asian GP series.
Rayzam’s best this year has been the 14.00s he clocked at the Thailand Open, the same meet where Robani timed 13.91 in a reminder to Rayzam that he has a battle on his hands for the sole spot available to athletes from the same country in each event under the Category B qualification regulation.
For Noraseela though the qualifying time of 56.50s in the women’s 400m hurdles is clearly within her reach as she holds the national record of 56.02s.
But the 29-year-old hurdler struggled to dip under 58 seconds in the two races she ran last year before a succession of injuries saw her sidelined for nearly a year.
Beijing, however, could well be her last chance at making her maiden Olympic appearance but all five athletes get two more chances to qualify with the second and third legs scheduled for tomorrow and June 30 in Korat and Hanoi respectively.
Failing which, all national athletes will get a final shot at qualifying at the Malaysian Pre-Olympic Championships in Bukit Jalil on July 4-5.
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