SEPANG: Coach Frank Petrovic has thrown down the gauntlet to national discus thrower Muhammad Irfan Shamsuddin, winner of six straight SEA Games gold medals, to break the regional Games’ record in the upcoming Thailand edition in December.
Petrovic feels that the regional Games would be the perfect setting for the 30-year-old athlete to carve another milestone in his glittering career, following his 58.82-metre (m) bronze medal effort at the 2025 Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea, on Friday (May 30).
“We have two main targets (for him) this year. This (Asian Athletics Championships) was the first. Now, we will go through the competition season and then he will have to peak one more time at the end of the year in Bangkok.
“There (at the SEA Games), it appears very easy but there is a Games record to beat, (and) not just win (the gold medal),” he told reporters when met at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport Terminal 1 in Sepang, yesterday.
The SEA Games discus record of 59.50m is held by former Singapore throw king James Wong Tuck Yim, which he set in the 1999 Brunei edition.
Muhammad Irfan, though has a personal best of 62.55m (also the national record), which he set at the Austrian Athletics Championships in Linz, Austria in 2017.
The Malaysian’s season best is 60m, which he recorded at the Queensland Athletics Championships in Australia in March.
For the record, Muhammad Irfan won his first SEA Games gold medal at the 2013 edition in Naypyidaw, Myanmar – a year after Petrovic started coaching him – before going on to emerge triumphant in the 2015 Singapore, 2017 Kuala Lumpur, 2019 Philippines and 2021 Hanoi and 2023 Phnom Penh editions.
Elaborating, Petrovic hopes to see the tough training the Negeri Sembilan-born athlete has undergone this season bear fruit in competitions in Europe.
“In Europe, the competition season just started… you have many opportunities to show what shape you are in. So, it is the best time for Irfan to go to Europe, compete and achieve his targets,” said the Slovakian coach.
The 2025 SEA Games in Thailand will be from Dec 9-20.
