KUALA LUMPUR: National sprinters Jonathan Nyepa and Azreen Nabila Alias both dominated the 100 metre (m) diamond sprint event to emerge as champions at the 2023 Varsity Track & Field (VTF) (Grand Final) championship here today.
Jonathan, representing Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), failed to break his own personal record as he took the gold in the men’s category with a time of 10.66 seconds (s), ahead of Universiti Tenaga Nasional’s (UNITEN) Muhammad Fakhrul Abdul Aziz (10.76s) and Muhammad Aqil Yasmin of Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) (10.84s) at the Universiti Malaya (UM) Arena.
“My main aim was to break my own record of 10.51 but I am still satisfied with the gold and am thankful I could defend the medal for UPM,” he told reporters after the race today.
The 27-year-old said that it was a challenge to reach peak form at the end of this season, which likely was a factor behind his failure to break his record.
In the women’s event, Azreen, also from UPM, won the gold with a time of 12.37s, a far cry from her best time of 11.77s she recorded at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but it was still enough to beat second-placed Nor Sarah Adi (12.62s) and third-placed Chelsea Cassiopea Evali Bopulas of Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) (12.70s).
“The win feels like personal redemption after coming in second behind Zaidatul Husniah Zulkifli last year,” the 23-year-old sprinter said.
Fellow UPM teammate, Andre Anura Anuar, lived up to expectation as he set aside his competitors in the triple jump to win the gold and set a new championship record with a jump of 15.90m.
His rivals, Muhammad Sunik Muslimin from Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) and Islamic International University of Malaysia (IIUM) Muhd Razif Ismail, could only manage 15.41m for the silver and 14.09m for the bronze respectively.–Bernama
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