Kota Kinabalu: Sabah’s Juliana Gumpil has set a new Asian record in the long jump at the World Masters Athletics Championship (WMAC) in Gothenburg, Sweden which concluded on Sunday.
She took the bronze medal in the women’s 60-64 category and the distance of 4.42 metres (m) also rewrote the previous Asian record of 4.38m.
Juliana is no stranger in setting new records as she is also the Asian record holder in the aged 45, 50 and 55 categories.
This was her fourth appearance in the world meet, having competed in 2016 (Perth), 2017 (Daegu), 2018 (Malaga) and her best result then was fourth place in the long jump and triple jump.
The medal she won was also the first by a Sabahan since the late Aliudin Jumaat captured a silver in the men’s 60m hurdles (aged 60) in 2017.
Juliana took part in two other events and did well in the pole vault event to finish in fifth place while in the 100m hurdles, she narrowly missed making the semifinals.
The national contingent was represented by six Sabah Masters Athletic Association (Samas) members. Apart from Juliana, other athletes in the team also did reasonably well.
Lucy Yong (65-69) made the podium in the long jump event with a third place finish after recording a distance of 3.62m and she achieved her season best in the triple jump event with 6.89m to earn a seventh place finish.
First-timer Alison Chew (age 40-44) qualified for the women’s 400m hurdles final and finished in a respectable sixth place with a personal best time of 70.49 seconds (s).
She also recorded another personal best of 61.85s to reach the semi-final in the 400m, but missed the cut to the final.
Bernice Lau competed in the 100m (45-49) but missed out on the semi-finals as she finished 12th out of 25 starters in the long jump, while Joan Goh (50-54) finished 34th in the 10-kilometre (km) run.
Former SEA Games athlete Shamry Ali (55-59) who was the only man in the team had a nightmare outing.
He was forced to skip the 400m hurdles heat after his luggage was delayed for two and a half days upon his arrival.
Although he was able to compete in the 100m hurdles days later and came second in his heat to advance to the final, he had to pull out with an ankle injury at the very last minute.
“I had to withdraw because I couldn’t jump or clear the hurdle. I thought of jogging only to finish the race but it didn’t look good, so I decided not to start.
“It was frustrating but I had no choice especially in hurdles because it can easily worsen with wrong steps,” he said.
Shamry also expressed his gratitude on behalf of the team to Sabah Sports Council for their assistance and support.
