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RAYZAMSHAH … won the 110m hurdles gold medal in record time of 13.91s in the last Games in Korat, but now he is facing uncertainty in defending his title in Laos.
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29th November, 2009
KOTA KINABALU: Hurdler Rayzamshah Wan Sofian has been forced to play a waiting game – whether or not he will be part of the national contingent for the Laos SEA Games.
The Keningau-born runner, who has a season best of 13.98s, has yet to beat the SEA Games’ qualifying mark of 13.95s.
Rayzamshah won the 110m hurdles gold medal in record time of 13.91s in the last Games in Korat, but now he is facing uncertainty in defending his title in Laos.
He was supposed to compete with two others – Mohd Robani Hassan and Mohd Faiz Mohamed – in the Singapore Open today to decide on the two hurdlers for the biennial Games.
But Rayzamshah had to skip the Singapore Open as he has not recovered from the hamstring injury he picked up during the Malaysian Open in Bukit Jalil last month.
“We will decide on Monday whether Rayzamshah will be in or out of the SEA Games’ squad,” SEA Games athletics team manager A. Subramaniam was quoted as saying in the Star yesterday.
He said the selection of the two national representatives will be based on the time Robani and Faiz clock in the Singapore Open.
“If they clock good times or surpass the qualifying mark, then they will run in the SEA Games.
Robani, the 2005 Manila SEA Games gold medallist, stands a better chance as he had clocked a season-best 14.01s at the Asian Track and Field (ATF) Championships in Guangzhou, China, two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, Mohd Zaiful Zainal Abidin will also be competing in the 400m event in the Singapore Open to justify his place in next month’s SEA Games’ squad.
Zaiful was to have taken part in the ATF meet in China but was stopped at the KL International Airport (KLIA) for not servicing his National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) loan.
Subramaniam said Zaiful needed to clock a good time in Singapore to win a place in the 4×400m squad.
There are five runners in the relay team, including Zaiful, but only four will be selected for the Games. The others are Mohd Zafril Mohd Zuslaini, P. Yuvaaraj, Mohd Idris Zakaria and K. Amran Raj.
The others who will be competing in the one-day Singapore Open are S. Mathialagan (men’s 800m) and women athletes Noraseela Khalid (400m), Norjannah Hafiszah Jamaluddin, Nurul Sarah Abdul Kadir (100m), Roslinda Samsu and Kathleen Ong (pole vault).
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