NATIONAL athletes got off the blocks impressively on the first day of the 2025 Malaysian Open Athletics Championships today when they dominated the 100-metre (m) sprint for both men and women, sending a strong signal ahead of the SEA Games 2025 in Thailand in December.
The men’s 100m race at the Tuanku Syed Putra Stadium here saw young national runner Danish Iftikhar Muhammad Roslee, 18, representing Johor, strike gold with a time of 10.26 seconds (s), beating South Korea’s Kim Si On (10.31s) into second spot. Jonathan Nyepa from the Malaysian Armed Forces (ATM) team was third (10.40s).
In the women’s 100m, national sprint queen Zaidatul Husniah Zulkifli, 32, representing Kedah, took gold with a time of 11.70s, leaving Amasha De Silva from Sri Lanka in second spot (11.80s) and Azreen Nabila Alias from Terengganu in third place (11.89s).
When met after the 100m events, Malaysian Athletics (MA) president Datuk Karim Ibrahim was optimistic about the calibre of Malaysian athletes going for the SEA Games, adding that the achievement of Danish Iftikhar augured well for the future of athletics in the country.
“Zaidatul Husniah today proved that experience is still an important asset in sprinting. Both 100m events were won by Malaysian athletes; we are proud because the sprint is a prestigious event in any championships.
“Although there are athletes from abroad participating, local athletes are still able to dominate the competition. We are also looking forward to the national athletes’ performance in the jump and throw events over the next two days,“ he said.
The Malaysian Open, which runs until Aug 31, has brought together 658 athletes from 16 home teams and 10 foreign countries, including Algeria, China, Japan, Nepal, Thailand and Sri Lanka. - Bernama
