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Thursday November 5, 2009

Hup Wei will face a strong challenge when he defends his ATF title

By AFTAR SINGH

KUALA LUMPUR: High jumper Lee Hup Wei will face a strong challenge when he defends his Asian Track and Field (ATF) Championships title in Guangzhou from Nov 10-14.

The Selangor lad became the first Malaysian athlete to bag the gold medal in the field event in the ATF meet in Jordan in 2007 when he cleared 2.24m.

Tough job: Hup Wei has only cleared 2.24m this year while other high jumpers taking part in the ATF meet have cleared 2.28m.

Malaysian Amateur Athletic Union (MAAU) deputy president Karim Ibrahim said that while high jumpers from Japan (Daigo Naoyuki) and China (Zhang Shufeng) had cleared 2.28m in competitions this year, Hup Wei had yet to come close to his national record of 2.27m (which he did in the China Open last year to qualify for the Beijing Olympics).

His best performance this year has been 2.24m, which he did in in three competitions, so the pressure will be on 22-year-old Hup Wei to raise his game is he is to retain the title.

Besides Hup Wei, Roslinda Samsu will also be seeking to defend her pole vault gold, which she bagged in Jordan with a height of 4.20m.

But the Kedah pole vaulter is in poor form too, having failed to clear the starting height of 3.50m at the Malaysian Open in Bukit Jalil last month.

Karim said they were hoping that pint-sized Melinder Kaur, who broke the women’s 3,000m steeplechase record three times in two months, would make a golden debut in the event at the ATF.

“She has shown tremendous improvement and I believe she can bag the gold medal,” said Karim.

Melinder, of Penang, set the national record of 11:04.14 in the Mini Olympics in Kuala Lumpur in August.

MAAU are also banking on 400m hurdler Noraseela Khalid to win the gold medal in Guangzhou.

The MAAU have named 22 athletes – 12 men and 10 women – for the four-day meet.

The other male athletes are Mohd Noor Imran Hadi (100m, 200m), Mohd Idris Zakaria (100m, 4x400m), Mohd Zaiful Zainal Abidin, Mohd Zafril Mohd Zuslaini (400m, 4x400m), P. Yuvaaraj (4x400m), M. Vadiveelan, Mohd Jironi Riduan (800m, 1,500m), Rayzam Shah Wan Sofian, Mohd Robani Hassan (110m hurdles), Lo Choon Sieng and Teoh Boon Lim (20km walk).

The other women athletes are Norjannah Hafizah Jamaluddin, Nurul Sarah Abdul Kadir (100m, 200m, 4x100m), Cynthia Manghing, Yee Yi Ling (4x100m), Siti Zubaidah Adabi (4x100m, long jump), K. Ganthimathi, (800m, 1,500m) and Tan Song Hwa (hammer).

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