PUTRAJAYA: National female endurance athlete Tahira Najmunisaa Muhammad performed brilliantly when she successfully dominated the Powerman Asia-Malaysia 2022 Women’s Classic category involving a distance of 80 kilometres (km) at Dataran Putrajaya here Sunday.
The Hanoi SEA Games silver medallist created a sensation by recording a time of three hours, 14 minutes and 08 seconds to confirm first place, while Singaporean representative Xinhui Su (3:29.41s) and national athlete Chong Hui Xin (3:38.33s) had to be contented with silver and bronze respectively.
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Commenting on the race, Tahira, 33, dubbed ‘ironwoman’, said it was very competitive and was the best preparation ground for her to face the SEA Games in Cambodia next year.
“I wasn’t really in the mood to race today, while riding my bike I crashed near KM10. But the weather was good, the challenge was good and Alhamdulillah (thanks to Allah) I got first place,” she told reporters.
The mother of four said her achievement today also proved that she is capable of performing better at the 2023 SEA Games.
Meantime, Tahira hopes that the Ministry of Youth and Sports can highlight duathlon in the country in an effort to introduce more athletes of the sport on the international stage.
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Meanwhile, Muhammad Haziq Junaidy topped the men’s Short category with a time of 1:26.30s, while the second and third places respectively belonged to Carl Vincent Guttierrez from the Philippines (1:30.44s) and Thawatchai Aemaot from Thailand (1:34.39s).
The men’s elite category was won by 2015 and 2016 duathlon world champion, Matt Smith from Australia, who clocked 2:40.58s, while Saud Alzaabi (2:40.58s) from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Amin Saghaeidehkordi (2:44.55s) from Iran completed the podium.
This year’s Powerman Asia-Malaysia saw a total of 4,300 participants from 35 countries, thus gaining the title of the World’s Biggest Duathlon, which was previously held by London.
Sunday’s competition saw participants race according to the distance set for their respective categories with a running-cycling-running format,
The last time the Asia-Malaysia Powerman was held was in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world.
