Skip to main content

Athletics: Hup Wei on course for World Final

ee Hup Wei has risen to second from fifth in the World Athletics Tour standings for high jump.
ee Hup Wei has risen to second from fifth in the World Athletics Tour standings for high jump.

LEE Hup Wei continued his recent fine run to clinch his second international high jump title of the year at the second leg of the Asian Grand Prix in Kunshan, China on Wednesday.

The Asian champion matched his season's best of 2.24 metres for his second win in the three-leg series after taking the first leg in Suzhou on Saturday when he won clearing the same height.

To put the icing on the cake, Hup Wei earned another six points to rise to second from fifth in the World Athletics Tour standings for men's high jump with 17 points, one behind the leader Jesse Williams of the United States.

If Hup Wei can maintain his position in the top eight till the end of August, he would become the first Malaysian athlete to qualify for the World Athletics Final, to be held on Sept 12-13 in Thessaloniki, Greece.

The 22-year-old from Dengkil, Selangor has the chance to move to the top of the standings if he wins the third leg in Hong Kong tomorrow although his main priority is to qualify for August's World Championships in Berlin.
To do so, he needs to clear 2.28m as he just fell short again to finish ahead of Kazakhstan's Sergei Zasimovich (2.22) and India's Hari Sankar Roy (2.15).

Rayzam Shah Wan Sofian improved on his first leg performance to post 14.27 seconds in the men's 110m hurdles to finish fifth as China's Shi Dongpeng cruised to his second straight win in 13.46s.

It was Rayzam's best time so far after three races this year but still some way off his personal best of 13.91s.

Zaiful Zainal Abidin, however, is still far from re-capturing the form which saw him set the 400m national record in 2001 as he finished sixth in his event in 48.01s.

His personal best of 46.41s would have won him the race as the winner Liu Xiaosheng of China clocked 46.42 but he still improved by half a second on the 46.51 he timed in the first leg.

The 27-year-old Zaiful did 47.50s at the Kedah Open on May 8 for his season's best but he needs to clock 46.64 to qualify for the Laos Sea Games in December.

NST

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Rajagobal Let Off The Hook

PETALING JAYA, April 24 (Bernama) -- National head coach Datuk K. Rajagobal was let off the hook by the Football Association of Malaysia's (FAM) Disciplinary Committee after finding no evidence that he had violated FAM's Article 88, as claimed. FAM Disciplinary Committee chairman Datuk Taufik Abdul Razak said the committee had decided not to charge Rajagobal after carefully analysing the video of the post-match press conference by the 56-year-old coach. "After listening to the recording of the post-match press conference, we decided to drop the charge against Rajagopal as he did not make such a statement. "Maybe his (Rajagobal) assessment and comments of the match was misconstrued by the media. There was no mention of the FAM policy throughout his comments," said Taufik after emerging from a three-hour Disciplinary Committee meeting at Wisma FAM in Kelana Jaya, here, Wednesday. Rajagobal who does not mince his words when asked to com...

Atlet Tempuhi Empat Kejohanan Besar Sebelum Olimpik Rio 2016

KUALA LUMPUR, 31 Mei (Bernama) -- Empat temasya sukan penting yang dijadual berlangsung mulai Disember ini hingga 2015 menjadi medan persiapan atlet negara sebelum menghadapi cabaran Sukan Olimpik 2016 di Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, kata Menteri Belia dan Sukan, Khairy Jamaluddin Jumaati. Kejohanan berkenaan ialah Sukan SEA di Myanmar pada Disember, Sukan Asia 2014 di Incheon, Korea Selatan, Sukan Komanwel 2014 di Glasgow, Scotland dan Sukan SEA 2015 di Singapura. Bercakap kepada pemberita selepas melawat Majlis Sukan Negara (MSN) di Bukit Jalil di sini, Khairy berkata kesemua temasya sukan itu dilihat amat penting dalam memastikan impian negara untuk membawa pulang pingat emas Olimpik pertama menjadi kenyataan. "Kita di Kementerian Belia dan Sukan (KBS) mahupun MSN akan memastikan semua atlet mendapat bantuan sewajarnya dalam melakukan persiapan ke arah membawa pulang pingat emas pertama negara di Rio de Janeiro, Brazil nanti," katanya. Dalam perkemb...

Uber Cub: Malaysian squad Can Spring A Surprise - Ahmad Shabery

KUALA LUMPUR, April 29 (Bernama) -- Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek remains confident that the national Uber Cup squad can spring a surprise when Malaysia hosts the Thomas and Uber Cup finals at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil from May 9-16. He said despite not being the favourite, the women's team was able to surprise everyone by winning the gold medal at the Laos SEA Games. "I am confident they (Uber Cup team) will be able to produce a similar surprise. Not only are they capable of reaching the semi-final, they can go further," he told reporters after having lunch with national shuttlers here Thursday. National badminton Team manager Datuk Syed Abu Bakar Abdullah who echoed the minister's confidence said: "In Laos, nobody expected the women's team to win the world, so why not the Uber Cup? All they need to do is try their very best." Women's team captain Wong Pei Tty said she and her team-mates have set a target of r...