Special Guest Carl Lewis with Malaysian Athletes in Kuala Lumpur (Part 1)

The legend Carl Lewis

 A special thanks to Nike Malaysia for arranging the Olympic legend Carl Lewis to Malaysia and invited a handful sprint athletes to participate in there program. It was held yesterday at Nike outlet in Pavilllion mall in Kuala Lumpur. Carl Lewis shared quite a lot his experiences, training strategy and tips and dealt with our questions.

During his career, he has won 9 gold medal at the Olympics and 8 gold medals at the IAAF World Championship.  He equalled Jesse Owens' performances during the 1984 Olympics with a 4 gold medals. He also had an undefeated streaks for almost 11 years in the long jump and had won it in a 4 consecutive Olympics.

He currently holds the World indoor record in the long jump in 8.79m where he registered in 1984. In 100 metres sprint, he has 3 consecutive gold medal in the World championships, and 2 at the Olympics. He selected for an International Olympic Committee (IOC) 'Sportsman of the Century' in 1999. He also named as 'the best Olympian of 20th century. Without a doubt, he is the greatest track and field athlete of all-time. Okay, enough about introduction.

The most memorable moment in Lewis career were in the 1984 where he won the 100metres dash in his first Olympics' appearance and also when he won his last gold medal in the Olympics which was in Atlanta 1996 in long jump. He also mentioned that the best performance he has done was from the World record breaking in the 100 metres in 9.86s during the IAAF World Championship in Tokyo in 1991.

Carl Lewis' inspiration came from the 4F: Faith, Family, Friend and Forget yourself!!. The most important thing an athlete must have is Faith. A deep faith to God and on himself has brought a very successful career to him. Family has been very close to him, and keep him to be the best. Lewis has mentioned about how close was himself to the rest of  members of the Santa Monica Track Club under the renowned athletics coach, Tom Tellez.

Carl Lewis with Malaysian sprint athletes

"Me, Leroy Burrell, Joe Deloach and Michael Marsh were very close and we're very determined, tried hard and fight to each other in our training to be a great athlete". It is where the third F= Friends became the source of inspiration of him. Relationship between Lewis and friends remained close until these days. "We're still good and  I've chatted with Leroy Burrell (who has broken  Lewis' WR twice in 1991 and 1994 with 9.90s and 9.85s respectively) last week in Texas". And the last 'F' would be about to became arrogant (Forget yourself!!... your opponents) to his rivals during only competition.

The 49-year-old still fit and slim also mentioned he was more on a long jumper rather than a 100 metres sprinter. He didn't lift the weights as much as people think but he has done a lot of plyometric exercises. "I loves the long jump more the the 100 metres, and my daily training types were more on a long jump training".

However, the 100 metres dash was always his priority because of the title of  “the fastest man in the world”, only to be awarded from the century dash winning. However, Lewis told us that a long jumper has  potential to excel in the 100 metres sprint but it's a bit difficult for a sprinter to be a long jumper.

He was very humble, funny, and cool!!

To be continued.

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15th ASEAN University Games, Chiang Mai 2010 : Athletics Schedule - Most Favourable

Ten days from now on the Asean University Games will opens its fifteenth edition in Chiang Mai, Thailand. This is a bi-annual event where the last edition was held in Kuala Lumpur.

In Kuala Lumpur, athletics events took place in four days, enough for 11 participant countries (2-3 countries with a full participant) with the schedule arrangement was not bad, but the Chiang Mai's schedule is more favourable.

In this edition athletics competition will take place over five days from 18 - 22 December including one day off day. I surprised the off day is on the second day, which is the rest day (strictly not for baton practice!) for sprinters after the 100 metres dash on the first day. Because the 200 meters will be on the third day.

The relays 4x100 meters and 4x400 meters are scheduled on the fourth and fifth days respectively. It will be a straight final for the 4x400 metres but there is the heats for the 4x100 metres. But i don't think so, because in the history of AUG nor SEA Games, normally only 3-6 countries sent their 4x100 metres teams.  So, the 4x100 meters also a straight final.

Since I am a sprint athlete, it is a tendency of judging only the schedule of sprint events, it is why i admit that this will be one of the most favourable schedules in the competition that i participate.

However, i found that the long distance events especially the women's 10,000 metres should be rearranged as they will hold it at 10.45am. Any long distance events should be held during the least hot in a day so the athletes could perform better and also to avoid any kind of heat illnesses.

> Schedule for the  athletics events for the15th AUG can be found here
> Schedule after athletics events also can be found here !

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Malaysia Athletics in Asian Games, Guangzhou 2010

Malaysia athletics team have ended the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou without any medal. Following an analysis of Malaysia Athletics' performances in the Asiad.

Lee Hup Wei (Men's High Jump, PB 2.27m)

Lee Hup Wei (PB 2.27, Asiad 2.15)

Hup Wei set a 2.27m (NR) in 2008 which enabled him to compete at the Beijing Olympics. He repeated the NR mark twice this year and won a hattrick at the 2010 Asian Athletics Grand Prix in India. He was the hope of bringing home the gold medal from the 2010 Asiad. However, he could only manage to place 5th with an upset mark of 2.15m.

"A great dissapointment, Hup Wei should have completed the last 2 jumps at 2.19m and not go for 2.23m, three athletes shared the bronze at 2.19m, he leapt 2.27m twice this year", said Roger Loong, a long-time athletics observer and statistician.

Noraseela Khalid (Women's 400m Hurdles, PB 56.02s)

Despite failing to retain the bronze medal she won in Doha 2006, she improved her season best of 58.23s twice in Guangzhou. At the semifinals, she clocked a SB  time of 58.16s to place third, then once again lowered the SB to 57.22s at the final where she placed fifth.


Roslinda Samsu (Women's Pole Vault, PB 4.40m)

Based on her PB of 4.40m, she could have won a medal. She became the Asian Champion in 2007, and leapt a 4.15m this year. However a 4.00 metres effort in Guangzhou hinders her to be one of the podium winners, thus failed to match her silver medal feat in Doha 2006.

Despite of the failure, i believe she will defends her SEA Games gold medal easily at Jakarta in June 2011.

Nurul Sarah A. Kadir (Women's 100m, PB 11.83s)

She won triple gold medals (100m, 200m & 4x100m) at Malaysian Games this year. After setting a PB of 11.83s during the 2009 SEA Games, she has been consistent to run sub-12s this year.

In Guangzhou, she did 11.99s in the first round and advanced in the semifinals where she clocked a season best mark of 11.91s.

Zubaidah Adabi (Women's 100m, PB 11.81s)

A former long jumper, but switched to 100m sprint this year at age of 24. But long jump and sprinting are related. Carl Lewis, a former WR holder in the 100m has won the long jump 4 times at the Olympics. Dwight Phillips reduced his 100m time to jump further.

It does to Zubaidah. She was the best long jumper in the country for at least four years and she timed 11.81s this year, which is the fastest time by any Malaysian since 2008. She was selected for the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi but withdrew due to an ankle injury. In Guangzhou, she did 12.01s in the first rounds, then 11.93s in the semifinals.

4x100m Relay (Yi Yee Ling, Norjannah Hafiszah, Nurul Sarah & Zubaidah)

Norjannah, Zubaidah, Sarah, Yee Ling

This quartet has broken the 21-year-old national record (45.37s) with a time of 45.33s in Zgorzelec, Poland this year. All of members have running below 12s in many times for the past 2 years.

First leg, Yi Yee Ling clocked a PB time of 11.95s during the Asian Athletics GP in India. Norjannah, the back stretch runner who has a PB of 11.82s registered a 11.99s this year. Second curve runner, Nurul Zarah ran her SB in Guangzhou in 11.91s (PB 11.83s), while Zubaidah who anchored the quartet has the fastest time in Malaysia this year in 11.81s.

In Guangzhou, they only managed to finish in sixth position in the final with a time of 45.54s.

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100m Videos Asian Games, Guangzhou 2010

100m Men Final


100m Women Final


100m Men Round 1

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


100m Women Round 1


To view the full results click here , 100 metres results click here

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100 Metres Results - Asian Games, Guangzhou 2010

100m Men Semifinals (Summary)

100m Women Semifinals (Summary)

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