The athletes in a photo with coach and manager. – KHAIRIL HASSAN
BRUNEI Darussalam national athletics head coach Isidro Del Prado will be hoping that the sprint team will excel in the 4x100m event in the 29th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia this month.
The head coach has indicated that the sprint relay will be their signature event though other individual races will be treated with similar importance with their strongest competitors taking to the track in the 100m and 200m.
Mohammad Fakhri bin Ismail will have the opportunity in the 100m event not only to revise his current personal best but also emulate the feat he achieved a couple of years ago in Singapore with an added bonus of a strong finish.
Meanwhile, his compatriot Muhammad Noor Firdaus Ar-Rasyid will be hoping for a strong showing in the 200m event.
The national sprint team is the current record holders after posting a historic time of 40.92s in the Singapore Open earlier this year which also led them to secure a podium finish.
Isidro is looking for good things from the athletes and remained upbeat of his athletes’ chances of progressing to the 4x100m final.
He said that with eleven countries all participating, the teams will be split into two semi-final heats with the fastest times qualifying to the final.
The head coach emphasised that it will be difficult to establish any indicator on what the exact qualifying target but he is hoping that they will eclipse the time they recorded at the Singapore Sports Hub.
“Our goal is the 4x100m event and our aim is to surpass the personal best (PB),” said Isidro in an interview with the Bulletin.
“We have two plans firstly the set will have Rahim (Abdul Rahim bin Abdullah) in the third leg of the race while the other set will have Syafi’e (Md Asy Syafi’e Md Bohari) in the third leg,” he added.
The same team that made huge strides in Singapore will feature again next month and Isidro has confirmed that Muhammad Fakhri Ismail will be running the anchor leg in the race.
Muhammad Faaizul bin Abdullah will start the race with Muhammad Noor Firdaus Ar-Rasyid taking the baton in the second leg of the relay.
However, a final decision on which set will be used could only be clearer after the conclusion of the managers’ meeting with accompanying external factors possibly coming to play.
The country’s individual runners also witnessed a fierce but healthy rivalry slowly developing between Muhammad Fakhri and Muhammad Noor Firdaus and both will be flying the flag in the 100m and 200m respectively.
The Filipino valued the performances of the sprinters and will be hoping that they could deliver in the grandest stage in the region.
Muhammad Fakhri made headlines in Singapore in 2015 when he reached the final en route to breaking his personal best.
Isidro, who has been serving as national athletics coach for seven years, acknowledged that both are good runners that could make an impression in their respective races.
