Lift off: Mohd Eizlan Dahalan in action during the men’s high jump event at the Islamic Solidarity Games in Konya, Turkiye.
PETALING JAYA: Mohd Eizlan Dahalan is getting all the help he needs to take over as the No. 1 high jump athlete in Malaysia.
Eizlan, who is now coached by former Olympian Lee Hup Wei, rose to the occasion to deliver a bronze for Malaysia in the men’s high jump at the Islamic Solidarity Games (ISG) in Konya, Turkiye, yesterday.
Eizlan leaped to a height of 2.14m to secure the bronze on count-back.
Fatak Bait Jaboob of Oman and Hamdi Ali of Qatar also cleared 2.14m in taking gold and silver respectively.
The 22-year-old Malaysian will be delighted to continue with his winning ways.
It is his third podium on the international front this year as he cleared 2.10m to take gold at the Asean University Games (AUG) in Thailand earlier this month.
Eizlan leapt to a personal best of 2.18m to secure bronze in his SEA Games debut in May in Vietnam.
“I have been training under Hup Wei for the AUG preparations since last month,” he said.
“He is very experienced and I learnt a lot from him, especially on the techniques.
“I did not go near my personal best but I am happy to make a memorable debut in Turkiye,” said Eizlan, who will be hoping to launch a strong bid to win the gold at the Cambodia SEA Games next year.
In the men’s 4x100m heats, the quartet of Khairul Hafiz Jantan, Mohd Arsyad Saat, Jonathan Nyepa and Mohd Haiqal Hanafi came close to breaking the national record mark after finishing sixth in 39.46 seconds.
The quartet qualified for the final by clocking 39.90 earlier.
The national 4x100m record is 39.09 and was set by Mohd Azeem Fahmi, Haiqal, Jonathan and Mohd Zulfiqar Ismail at the Hanoi SEA Games in May.
In the men’s discus, Irfan Shamsuddin, who has a personal best of 62.55m, posted 59.37m to finish sixth out of 10 athletes.
Irfan recorded 59.53m to place ninth out of 12 athletes in the final at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
Jonathan posted 21.32s in his men’s 200m heats for sixth place and did not advance to the final.
In the women’s high jump final, Nurliyana Kamaruddin cleared 1.73m to finish sixth while Yap Sean Yee only managed 1.65m for 11th place out of 12 participants.
Malaysia now have one silver and three bronzes after one week of competition in ISG.
Cyclist Nur Aisyah Mohd Zubir contributed the lone silver in the women’s scratch and another bronze in the women’s omnium last week.
Nor Sarah Adi clinched bronze in the women’s pole vault. A total of 55 countries are participating in the quadrennial ISG.
