Athletics: Hup Wei remains the only shining light

Lee Hup Wei continues to be the only Malaysian athlete to make headway on the international scene.

AS Lee Hup Wei blazes a trail across Europe, time is running out for the rest of the national track and field athletes to make the cut for the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games. So far, only four athletes have qualified for the New Delhi Commonwealth Games in October while the tally for the Guangzhou Asian Games the following month is even worse -- just two athletes plus the women's 4x100m quartet.

The paltry representation, however, is in keeping with the declining standard of Malaysian athletics with Hup Wei the only athlete capable of mixing it with the best.

The 23-year-old high jumper is the only Malaysian athlete to have qualified for both the Commonwealth and Asian Games and further enhanced his reputation with a second European win of his career in Liege, Belgium on July 10.
Hup Wei matched his national record of 2.27m for the second time this year in edging American Keith Moffatt at the Liege International area meeting on countback to add to his sweep of the three-series Asian Grand Prix in early June.

His latest performance in Europe comes after his record-equalling jump at the final Asian GP meet in Chennai, India and two years after his maiden European title in Lapinlahti, Finland.

While Hup Wei, ranked second in Asia to Qatar's Moataz Essa Barshim based on 2010 performances, continues to make headway on the international scene, the same cannot be said of two stalwarts of Malaysian athletics -- pole vaulter Roslinda Samsu and crocked hurdler Noraseela Khalid.

Noraseela has yet to run a race since last December's Vientiane Sea Games and with only three months to go to New Delhi, is fast running out of time and competitions as she continues her rehabilitation from injury.

Roslinda's woes are of a different kind as she struggles for consistency having only been able to set a season's best of 4.15m, far from her national record of 4.40.

Although Roslinda is confirmed for Guangzhou, her bid to make the Commonwealth Games cut was not helped by the haphazard organisation of her recent trip to Europe, where she failed to go higher than 4.00 in any of the three meetings she took part in.

Needing to clear 4.25 to make it to New Delhi, Roslinda has no option left other than to qualify through local competitions, beginning with the Selangor Open this weekend.

Walkers Teoh Boon Lim and Lo Choon Sieng and middle distance runner M. Vadivellan are the other athletes to have qualified for the Commonwealth Games while five more athletes have a chance to join them when they compete at the Asian All-Star meet in New Delhi today.

S. Mathialagan and Jironi Riduan are down for the men's 800m with K. Ganthimanthi running the women's equivalent while juniors P. Yuvaraaj and Ajmal Aiman Mat Hassan will be competing in the men's 400m and 110m hurdles respectively.

Read more: NST