Mohammad Fakhri Ismail in an interview with the media. – SYAHMI HASSAN
BRUNEI Darussalam national athlete Mohammad Fakhri bin Ismail announced his intent to shade his personal best in the 100m event of the 18th Asian Games at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta.
“I’m hoping to break my personal record and this will help us in our target for the SEA Games in 2019,” said Fakhri in an interview with the media.
Mohammad Fakhri is also the national record holder in 100m after setting the standard with a time of 10.59s during the 2015 SEA Games in Singapore.
His Asian Games appearance adds on to his interesting resume of competing in the big four having previously competed in the SEA Games, Olympics and the World Championships.
“To qualify for the next round of the competition will also be good. The level of the Asian Games is world class as you have athletes from Japan and there is also someone who did nine seconds.”
China sprinter Su Bingtian and Japan’s Yoshihide Kiryu broke the sub-10 second barrier with 9.91s and 9.98s, respectively, with the former setting an Asian record.
“Japan and China did nine seconds so these are the two people that were the first Asians to clock nine seconds,” he said.
Fakhri, who qualified for the finals of the SEA Games in 2015, said that the duo would make it to the finals of the Olympics with their times.
The national athlete who specialises in 100m shared that conditioning work was part of his training routine in preparing for the major tournament.
“We had continuous training and especially after the SEA Games we will do conditioning. If there is a Games, we will make it intensive phase by phase. Usually, the intensive training starts three months prior to the tournament,” he added.
“We will focus more on speed or strength. During intensive training, this is where things like tightness in the muscles can happen.”
When asked what his thoughts were when he received news of his selection, he said, “I was not expecting it at first but I’m excited that we will be represented in the Asian Games.”
Fakhri has shared the same round with athletics icon Usain Bolt during his maiden World Championships appearance but indicated that pressure will always be associated during the race especially performing in front of a large crowd.
“There will always be pressure. It is not always that we run in front of a large crowd and in Asian Games there will be a huge crowd. We will certainly feel the pressure in the tournament,” he said.
Fakhri will compete in round one on Saturday armed with the hopes of progressing to the semi-final and final which begin both the next day.
Meanwhile, Muhammad Noor Firdaus Ar-Rasyid bin Haji Mohd Idris, the other national sprinter selected to represent the country at the Asian Games will compete in the 200m event.
