PHNOM PENH, May 12 — Two former SEA Games sprint kings — Khairul Hafiz Jantan and Muhammad Haiqal Hanafi — could only finish joint third in the men’s 100-metre (m) final of the 2023 edition, earlier today.
The final of the blue riband event at the Morodok Techo National Stadium saw Khairul Hafiz (in lane five) and Muhammad Haiqal (lane four) getting off to a good start to lead the pack.
However, Thailand’s Soraoat Dapbang and Singapore’s Marc Brian Louis overtook them in the last 50m to deny the Malaysians a top-two finish.
Soraoat was crowned as the new Southeast Asian sprint king when he clocked 10.37 seconds (s) — just 0.02 of a second faster than Marc Brian (10.39s).
Khairul Hafiz, who won gold in the 2017 edition in Kuala Lumpur, and Muhammad Haiqal, who emerged as the fastest man in Southeast Asia in the 2019 edition in the Philippines, were adjudged to have clocked the same time of 10.45s.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s two women 100m sprinters – Zaidatul Husniah Zulkifli and Nur Aishah Rofina Aling – failed to bring home any medals after they could only finish fourth and seventh in the final respectively.
Zaidatul clocked 11.83s and Nur Aishah 12.12s.
Singaporean Veronica Shanti Pereira emerged as the new SEA Games sprint queen after clocking 11.41s, followed by Thailand’s Supanich Poolkerd (11.58s) and Vietnam’s Thi Nhi Yen Tran (11.75s).
— Bernama
