KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia’s sensational sprinter Muhammad Azeem Fahmi missed a golden opportunity to leverage the advanced technology of the purple track at Stade de France.
This cutting-edge track could have potentially helped him break the national record and become the first Malaysian to clock under 10 seconds in the 100m event at the Paris Olympics.
This is not just speculation. Joao Bomfim, a polymer chemist from Luxembourg and former head of Research and Development at Mondo, the company that built the track, reported that athletes could run up to 2% faster compared to the track used at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda won the gold medal in the 10,000m with a time of 26 minutes 34.14sec, shattering the 16-year-old Olympic record previously held by Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele.
Impressively, 13 other runners in the same race also recorded times faster than Bekele’s old record.
Furthermore, the United States mixed 4x400m relay team set a new world record during the heats with a time of 3min 7.41sec.
Despite the promising conditions, Azeem fell short of his goal, clocking 10.42sec in the preliminaries and then, after nearly slipping, managing only 10.45sec in the first round.
This result dashed Azeem’s hopes of advancing to the semi-finals.
Former national sprinter Nazmizan Mohamad believes Azeem’s inability to achieve his best times this season could be due to inadequate conditioning, likely a result of his packed schedule this year.
“After he recorded 10.42 in the preliminary round, I expected he might run around 10.2sec. However, because he nearly fell while running, it disrupted his momentum.
“At Azeem’s age – just 20 – I believe he can run even faster. From what I understand, after the Hangzhou Asian Games last October, he returned to the United States and didn’t undergo proper conditioning as the Auburn team had already started their pre-competition training.
“This disruption during his transition could be a factor, as training involves phases such as conditioning, pre-competition, and competition.
“I also think his focus might have been affected by the delay in Malaysia’s announcement of the athletes representing the country in Paris,” said Nazmizan.
Despite this, Nazmizan remains confident that Azeem still has enough time to prepare for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics and has a real chance to qualify on merit.
Although Azeem struggled to achieve his best individual times this year, he was a key member of the Auburn University 4x100m relay team.
They achieved the fourth-fastest time in the world, winning the gold medal at the NCAA Championships in Oregon, USA, in June with a time of 38.03s.
“I think we need to move forward and focus on Los Angeles 2028. He needs to build more muscle, become faster, and be more consistent in the competitions he participates in,” he added. – August 4, 2024