Lucky girls: (from left) Azreen Nabila Alias, Zaidatul Husniah Zulkifli, Nur Afrina Batrisyia Mohd Rizal and Shereen Samson Vallabouy are all smiles after they were announced as the bronze medallists. — S.S. KANESAN/The Star
AFTER eight years, Shereen Samson Vallabouy anchored the women’s 4x100m team and, despite her brilliant effort, she crossed the line fourth.
Bahrain finished third and received their medals on the podium. However, a joyous surprise awaited the quartet of Shereen, Azreen Nabila Alias, Nur Afrina Batrisyia Mohd Rizal and Zaidatul Husniah Zulkifli, who had clocked 45.01s.
It was Malaysia’s first medal in 57 years after the feat of Cheryl Dorall, Jacqeline Kleinman, Mary Rajamani and Rajemah Sheikh Ahmad in the 1966 Asian Games.
Race officials announced later that Malaysia had finished third, as Bahrain were disqualified for lane infringement.
Bahrain’s third sprinter Mahamat Zenab Moussa Ali was found to have passed the baton outside the takeover zone.
And the Malaysians were jumping for joy.
China finished first with a time of 43.39s, while Thailand took silver with a time of 44.32s.
Shereen, 24, said that the last time she took part in the 4x100m as an anchor was in the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games, where she, Fathin Faqihah, Siti Fatima Mohamed, Zaidatul finished fifth with a time of 45.39s.
“It felt great. I love the 4x100m, it is a fun race. All of us have confidence and backed each other pretty well. We pushed each other till the end. I just ran as fast as I could,” she said.
Even Zaidatul said Shereen’s inclusion was a last minute decision and they even could not decide if she should run the anchor leg or not.
“We were planning to put her at first or second but because she was a last minute inclusion, she was placed as the anchor and you can see the changeover of baton between her and Afrina was good,” said the 32-year-old.
Afrina handed Shereen the baton in fifth place, but she ran a brilliant race to finish fourth. And thanks to Bahrain’s mistake, they were third giving Shereen her second bronze medal at the Games.
She had earlier finished third in the women’s 400m.
“Despite being new, we all have that chemistry. The timing was not our national record but it is the season’s best. We hope to do better next time,” said Zaidatul.
But if the women were celebrating, the men’s quartet of Mohd Azeem Fahmi, Mohd Arsyad Saat, Jonathan Nyepa and Khairul Hafiz Jantan were down in the dumps.
Like the Bahrain women, they were disqualified from the race due to a lane infringement.
They finished fifth with a time of 39.19s, but race officials later confirmed that they were disqualified due to lane infringement.
When entering the mixed zone, Azeem immediately apologised by saying they tried their best.
“We tried to do our best for Malaysia. We will look to bounce back and hopefully in the next Asian Games in Nagoya, we will be able to do even better. I believe in this team of sprinters that we have,” said Azeem.
China finished first with a time of 38.29s, while Japan finished with 38.44s. South Korea took bronze with a time of 38.74s.
