KUALA LUMPUR: Teenager Mohd Irfan Shamsuddin broke the national discus record again but failed to qualify for the Myanmar SEA Games in December.
The burly 18-year-old broke his national record for the second time in three months with a distance of 49.86m in the Selangor Open athletics championships at the National Sports Council (NSC) Training Track in Bukit Jalil on Saturday. He improved his mark by five centimetres, having registered 49.81m at the Malaysian Closed in June.
The qualifying mark for the Games is 50.56m.
“Breaking the 50m mark is harder than I thought, but I will not give up until I beat it,” said Irfan, who trains under Slovakian Fero Petrovic.
Irfan, who won the gold medal in the Hong Kong Open in July with a throw of 48.00m, has one last chance to beat the qualifying mark – at the Malaysian Open from Oct 19-20.
To date, only 12 athletes – 11 men and one woman – have qualified on merit for the Games.
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