Sabah's top hurdler Rayzam hopes Vietnam open will kick-start his season
Published on: Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Kota Kinabalu: Top hurdler Rayzam Shah Wan Sofian is hoping the Vietnam Open this weekend at the Thong Nhat Stadium in Ho Chi Minn City will kick-start his season.The Keningau lad who is trying to meet the Asian Games qualifying mark of 13.80s in the men's 110m hurdle left for the national capital to join six other national athletes on Tuesday evening.The former SEA Games winner had a slow start this season after only managing a second place finish with a time of 14.20s at the Malaysian Open last month.
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He told Express Sports during his final training session at the Likas Stadium on Tuesday that he needs to do well in the meet in order to make it to the 17th Asian Games to be held in Incheon, South Korea in September."I will be trying to run below 13.90s this weekend as the time is good enough to qualify under Category B . It won't be easy as this is going to be only my third competition of the year."He admitted that he did not expect to run for this edition of the Asian Games as he was thinking more of the SEA Games next year after the second successive second place finish in the last SEA Games held late last year. "In actual fact, I was contemplating taking a break from major competition this year and concentrate on recapturing my SEA Games title next year, but I had a change of heart after the officials had a heart to heart talk with me."
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"I only started training in April since the SEA Games late last year and was asked to compete in the Thailand Open three weeks later and as expected, I did not do well as a result.""The Malaysian Open in Perlis last month was my second competition and again I failed to get back my rhythm after the long layoff and that caused me dearly and further more, there was no heats or semifinals on that day and I had to go straight to the finals, giving me no time to adjust as well ."
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He said despite the shortcomings, he is confident that he is on track to run a very good time in this weekend's meet and said even if he fail to achieve the 13.80s qualifying time, he still has two more competitions to try meet the mark. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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