SEA Games: New men's 4x100m relay record for Malaysia
Astro Arena
August 25, 2017 22:47 MYT
August 25, 2017 22:47 MYT
Haiqal Hanafi, who was drafted in as Khairul's replacement, took the track with Jonathan Nyepa, Badrul Hisyam Abdul Manap and Nixson Kennedy to clock 39.27s, beating the previous mark by 0.35s. - BERNAMA pic
Despite the absence of Khairul Hafiz Jantan and not obtaining a podium finish, Malaysia broke their national record in the men's 4x100m relay event at the 2017 SEA Games on Friday.
Haiqal Hanafi, who was drafted in as Khairul's replacement, took the track with Jonathan Nyepa, Badrul Hisyam Abdul Manap and Nixson Kennedy to clock 39.27s, beating the previous mark by 0.35s.
However, the Malaysian quartet finished outside the top three with Thailand taking gold in 38.90s, setting a new SEA Games record at the same time.
Indonesia (39.05s) and the Philippines (39.11s) completed the podium photo.
Although they did not win any medal, they were happy with their result.
"Thank you to all our fans for their support. This [the new national record] is not something we expected and we gave our best," said Jonathan.
"[The absence of Khairul Hafiz] affected us, but we took it in our stride to inspire us to do our best in our home country, and thankfully we managed to set the new record,." added Badrul.
As for their female counterparts, they finished last in 45.39s as Vietnam took gold in a new record time (43.88s), Thailand silver and the Philippines bronze.