KANGAR: National women sprinter Zaidatul Husniah Zulkifli created a sensation when she managed to smash the 31-year-old women’s national 100m held by G. Shanti, at the Perlis Open Athletics Championships today.
Zaidatul Husniah, 31, who is affectionately known as ‘Adik’, recorded a time of 11.49 seconds (s) enroute to winning the gold medal at the Tuanku Syed Putra Stadium here, to erase the 11.50s old record of G. Shanti, which the latter had set in Kuala Lumpur on May 7, 1993.
The silver medal went to Nur Afrina Batrisyia Rizal with a time of 11.91s while the bronze medal was won by Azreen Nabila Alias after clocking (12s).
For the record, Zaidatul Husniah had previously surpassed Shanti’s record in 2017 with a time of 11.36s, but the record was not recognized since it was wind assisted.
Meanwhile, Zaidatul Husniah said age was not a barrier for her to prove that she still has the desire and drive to continue running for the country.
“For me it is hard work so far, the important thing is not to be happy at my age to be able to make timings like this. I prove that age is not a factor that can make us fall.
“I wanted to prove that without hard work we will not get what we want, I just kept running, just enjoyed it, I didn’t expect to be able to record such a time,“ she told reporters today.
She also hoped that the support given would not only be focused on her alone but also on her fellow athletes.
Meanwhile, national sprints coach Mohd Poad Md Kassim said he was grateful for Zaidatul Husniah’s success and it was an expected result as the country’s female sprinter had shown potential during training to break the national record.
“I would like to thank Zaidatul for breaking the national record. Thanks also to Zaidatul’s comrades who have trained together, without them, Zaidatul might not have been able to clock such a good time,” he told Bernama.
Mohd Poad added that Zaidatul was being prepared for the SEA Games and targetted to be on the podium.
